


31 days of ficmas

by SHADOWSQUILL



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 31 Days of Ficmas, Christmas shipping, Christmas shots, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-02-22 01:24:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 24,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13156203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHADOWSQUILL/pseuds/SHADOWSQUILL
Summary: A story a day makes everything better. I've taken up the doctorroseprompts Christmas challenge for all the December month and here's my contribution. Featuring all the New Who Doctors.





	1. Day 1: Hope (Nine/Rose/Liv)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This shot is inspired from a roleplay I'm doing on Instagram. Olivia Baxter, who preferred being called Liv, is an OC of mine.

Hope warmed his heart as he watched the two women running from one part of the house to the other. He was sat on a step of the staircase going to the first floor and observing them. It was the beginning of December, and both Rose and Liv had woken up completely excited about the idea of a Christmas under the snow. Some snowflakes had started to fall that morning and that had brightened their day. They had run to the closest mall to buy Christmas stuff. They had offered him to come with them, but he had politely declined the offer by shaking his head. He still wasn’t talking to any of them, but he felt more comfortable around them now. They had been living together for a few months in the family house he used to share with his mother and brother, and he hadn’t realised how lively it had become with the two women.

Rose and Olivia reminded him a lot of his brother. He was always so full of life, jumping and running everywhere. And now, where was he? What was he doing? Did he know Christmas time was coming? Maxence sighed. That house had seemed so empty, so dull last time he had come there. With the death of his mother and his brother reported missing on the battlefield, he had neglected it by refusing to even come back and living in the streets. So, when he had decided to rent the house to the women who were making her best to drag him out of his vicious circle, it had been the best decision he had taken in a while. Maybe that Christmas would be a great one. Maybe he would have some fun. He would miss his family for sure, but he just hoped that everything would get better now. Christmas was the season of miracles after all.

The house was quickly being coated with the colours of the holiday, and the good mood was contagious. He found himself smiling at his friends’ enthusiasm. They were doing a nice job. He liked it all. And now that he was thinking of it, maybe he should buy them a gift or two for Christmas. They deserved it after all for all they had done for him. He wasn’t an easy man to live with and his PTSD and nightmares were often ruining their days and nights. Living around them was helping him. He hadn’t thought that would be possible. The two women were his new family now, but he would never tell them. If he did, they would think he was going all sentimental and they would hug him and tell him that it was the same for them, who never had any family before. It was clearly too soon for those effusions of love. He wasn’t ready to go back into it.

He got surprised by Liv who was happily coming upstairs to decorate the rest of the house. She was carrying a box full of balls and tinsels and fairy lights. There also were little Christmas trees. Three. One for each bedroom, he guessed. He gave her a shy smile, and she replied to it with a grin.

 

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were there.” She looked back downstairs at all the ornaments. “Rose loves Christmas. We never really had the chance to embellish a house before since, you know, we’re both from the system. I hope it’s not too much. Do you like it?”

 

Maxence nodded. He really liked it. He used to be the one doing it with his brother. Their mother was helping them when they were little and was just watching them when they got older – and taller – than her. The result had never been as beautiful as it was now.

 

“We didn’t know if you’d like to have one of these,” she pointed to the box with the little Christmas trees and ornaments, “in your room, but we bought one for you. Just in case.”

 

She smiled at him again, more shyly that time. His lips twitched. They were adorable. Thinking about him even when they were doing something as simple as embellishing the house. They were roommates. It was a good house share with good people. He slowly got up and stretched his body. He was gonna help her decorating. Even if he was the owner of the place, even if they were his tenants, he could muck in and participate to the festivities. He took the box from Liv with his only hand, and was relieved the woman said nothing about him not wearing his prosthetic. She just followed him upstairs and they both embellished the rooms and corridors. Liv was the only one talking, but it didn’t matter. When they were done, they looked at their work, content of what they had done.

 

“Rose is gonna love it. We did a great job.”

 

Maxence acquiesced. He agreed totally. They did an amazing job. Much better than what he used to do when he was younger. Too bad they hadn’t done any tinsel in crepe-paper though. It was always fun. Tegan had always been so good in paper folding.

 

“She didn’t want me to show you this,” admitted Liv. She was biting her bottom lip anxiously as she pulled something out of her pocket. “But I’ve found this in the letter box this morning.”

 

She opened her hand and revealed a small paper rose in her palm. Tegan’s signature. He had found some others to the places they used to go together. He had thought that someone was just having fun, that it was someone else doing it. Well, he had tried to convinced himself that it was, but the paper flowers were all made the way Tegan was making them in the past. There was that little detail that told Maxence that his brother was somewhere and was sending him a message he couldn’t understand yet. He was trying not to have his hopes really high, but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted his brother back. The last member of his family. Maybe it would be his Christmas’ miracle. He took the rose and put it in his pocket, just when Rose joined them.

 

“What are you up to?”

“We were admiring our work,” lied Liv, smiling at Rose. “Maxence helped me. He’s very good at decorating.”

“I can see that.”

 

Rose was smiling too. As a therapist, she was happy to see her patient making more progress. But she wasn’t acting like a therapist with Maxence, she was acting as his friend, and it was working much better. He had made a new step forward. He wasn’t a lost cause. There was still was hope to bring him back completely into society.


	2. Day 2: Skating (Ten/Rose)

The Doctor couldn’t sleep tonight. No matter how hard he was trying to fall asleep, Mr Sandman seemed to always ignore him. He was turning and turning all over again in the gigantic bed he only used whenever the exhaustion took over him. It wasn’t because of the sheets or the pillows – they were fresh and soft like he liked them – nor because of the mattress that was perfect for his body – not too hard, not too soft. Even his pyjamas were the way he liked them. The problem didn’t come from any of the bed sheets he was wrapped into or from the clothes he was wearing. No, the problem came from his mind.

Oh, he was always overthinking everything. His mind was always racing. There were so many things to think about. Past, present, future, moments that could have been, moments that never were. He could see it all and decide whatever he wanted to do. He was sometimes thinking about the war, but it was mostly after a war or a situation he had just lived during an adventure. He was trying to think of it the less possible. It was useless to torture himself with regrets and _‘I should have done this instead if that.’_ That was a fixed point: the war happened, he ended it and he was the only survivor. Full stop!

There was another thing that was torturing him. But it was a sweet torture. A torture he liked and disliked all at once. That torture was thinking about the blonde who was sleeping a few rooms away from his. Rose Tyler. Exceptional human she was. Exceptional enough to want to save a broken Time Lord and even more exceptional for making him all domestics. Because of her, he was thinking of things he shouldn’t be thinking of. Making projects he shouldn’t make. It was a good thing usually, but not for him. He didn’t deserve the happy dreams he was having because of what he had done. He was a survivor, a killer, and he couldn’t settle down in some house, have kids and live a normal life.

That wasn’t preventing him from trying and enjoying every little moment of happiness he could get. Just today, they had had another of those moments together. In her timeline, it was almost Christmas. It was that time of the year where you were having fun and running everywhere to buy gifts. So, he had taken Rose to some Christmas market on a humanoid planet. They both had wandered from one stall to another, Rose buying gifts for her mother and Mickey, and the Doctor secretly buying gifts for Rose. They had drunk mulled wine and continued walking around until they saw an outdoor skating rink. Rose’s childish look and quivering lip had won and he had accepted to go on that ice.

Despite her comment on how it was her first time she was ice-skating, she had been doing fine while he was being as clumsy as a Judoon on rollers or a blind Dalek. He had been clinging to her hands, trying not to fall as she laughed and gently mocked him. She had been leading him on the ice with dexterity and he was a burden who kept falling. In the end, he had given up and just watched her. Her movements were flowing and graceful. Almost like a dance and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He had been hypnotised, and it had made him smile to himself. And once again, he was dreaming of a possible future with that blonde. It was sometimes good to dream. It was keeping his hearts warm with hope and joy, keeping him away from the rage and self-destruction burning deep down.

So tonight, all he could think of was that wonderful day he had spent with the marvellous Rose Tyler. He had a goofy smile on his lips as he looked at the starry ceiling above him. He wished that day hadn’t ended. He wished he could have another one. Only the future could tell. What the Doctor knew for sure tonight was that he would never ice-skate again, and that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep as long as the blonde would occupy his mind…


	3. Day 3: Hot chocolate (Nine/Rose)

The Doctor snorted when Rose told him what she had in mind. He was no man to drink hot chocolate. Hot chocolate, and what else? A bedtime story and her tucking him in? No such a thing for him. It was a stupid story, really. The TARDIS had chosen to land on Earth during the last glacial period. As usual, no one had checked the scanner and Rose had run to open the door before him. She had been totally buried under so much snow he had had to dig with his bare hands to take her out of that hill of white powder that kept falling on her and by the time he managed to pull her out, she was completely frozen. Too cold for a human to survive like that for too long.

He had immediately taken her to her bedroom. He needed to raise her body temperature. A thermometer. Blanket. A survival blanket. He had been taking care of her until she was better, only to be yelled at when she had woken up. She had told him that it was all his fault, that he should have checked on the scanner, that if he wasn’t so reckless, she wouldn’t be in danger so often. And with how proud he was, he had gotten offended and had retorted that she had known from the start what to expect, that she shouldn’t have come if she was thinking that way. And he had left the room to grumble in another room. He had just wanted to be nice and here how it was ending.

Later, Rose had come to find him and had apologised. He was cleaning the snow that had melt on the ground. The TARDIS had put the most of it out so she could close the doors but the cleaning was up to her thief. He had forgiven the blonde of course. He couldn’t stay mad at Rose Tyler for too long. He had offered her to go to the library and have some tea, but she had told him that she would rather have hot chocolate with marshmallows and she wanted him to have it with her. That’s when he had laughed at her, and she raised an eyebrow and folded her arms over her chest. She felt cold.

 

“So, what? Too domestic for you maybe?”

“You’ve got it!”

“Oh, sorry, mister I’m-better-than-anyone-else! Does chocolate kill Time Lords or something?”

 

And she left, mad at him once again, as he leant on the console and sighed. He was stupid, wasn’t he? He had spent hours by her side, watching over her, making sure she was well hydrated, making sure her body temperature was getting back to normal. He couldn’t do more domestic than that. So why refusing a cup of hot chocolate? Why pushing away someone that was making him happy and alive again? There wasn’t any good reason for it. Except, maybe, for protecting the both of them from an impossible and forbidden relationship. The rules were the rules. But then, he was the last of the Time Lords. So the rules were his and he could do whatever he wanted. He had been against the rules all his life, why would he follow them now?

After several minutes of weighing up the pros and cons, he gave in and made his way to the kitchen. He found Rose sat in front of a steaming cup of hot chocolate with a stack of marshmallows over it. She didn’t look up at him but he could see the smile on her lips despite the light steam surrounding her. On the other side of the table, another cup of hot chocolate was waiting with the same amount of marshmallows. Not only had she known that he would come back on his words and meet her there, but she also knew the power she had on him…


	4. Day 4: Ginger (Eleven/Rose)

“What have you done to your hair?”

 

The Doctor raised an eyebrow as Rose met him in the console room. She still wasn’t used to the new design of the TARDIS. It was modern, and reflecting the Doctor’s personality. He always was cheerful and hopping. That part of darkness and regret she had always seen in the others wasn’t in him. She couldn’t see it, and sometimes, it was scaring her. But she was keeping those thoughts to herself.

 

“I was tired of the blonde,” she admitted. “I’m not a Time Lord but I’m not against some change.”

“Yeah, but… Why that colour?”

 

Rose ran a hand through her hair. She hadn’t told him that she wanted to stop being blonde. He liked her as a blonde. She was his pink and yellow girl. That wasn’t the fact that her hair colour had changed that was bothering him though.

 

“You haven’t thought of it, haven’t you?”

“Thought of what?”

“Your hair.”

 

She walked closer to him and softly kissed his chin. She tangled her fingers in his brown hair. It was longer than his predecessors’ but she didn’t mind. Hers were shorter. A fresh haircut, some curls, a new colour and she was another woman. Nothing as magical – he would say scientific – as a regeneration. She looked up at him. His eyes were sparkling. His fingers brushed her hair. He loved what he was seeing.

 

“You like my hair.”

“I do. No matter the face you’re wearing.”

“So why that colour?”

“For a genius from outer space, you can be pretty stupid sometimes.”

“Oi!”

“You’ve never thought of dying your hair. In over nine hundred years, it never came to your mind.”

“That would be cheating.”

“Oh, right. You prefer playing the lottery with regeneration.”

“It’s more fun when you don’t know what you’re gonna end up with.”

“That’s also what you say about our adventures.”

“Impudent? You’re pleasing me more and more.”

“Yeah? What do you think of me as a ginger?”

“I’ll tell you what…” he started.

 

He then murmured a few words in her ear and kissed the blush on her cheek. He might not be a ginger, but his girlfriend was, just like she was a hero, his hero, and he was gonna show her how much he loved her.


	5. Day 5: Candy Canes (Twelve/Rose)

He was observing her from the console room as she was bouncing around the upper walkway. She had decided to colour the TARDIS with Christmas tinsels and balls. That wasn’t his thing but he couldn’t refuse her anything. He never could, and probably never would. He was giving in to all her passing fancies, except when it came to her mother. He was still reluctant to go to the Powell Estates and pay her a visit. She had once told him that he was too old for her girl. Maybe, even becoming younger hadn’t made her change her mind. So why keep on trying to be younger than he was? Rose loved him, no matter his face and age. She had promised him forever, she would stay forever. And if she ever wanted to go, he would let her go, even if it was ripping his hearts out of his chest.

She stopped bouncing around and looked at her work, her hands on her hips. She was beautiful as ever standing there, her back on him. She had grown old of course. Bad Wold hadn’t stopped her ageing. But it was only making her more beautiful. She just regretted him not giving her any child. He didn’t feel ready for that, but time was passing by and she was getting older. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to carry a kid without being in danger. She wouldn’t tell him but he knew she would be sort of angry with him if they were too late. However, to him, she was still a kid. She was still the young woman he had met in a basement.

And now, she was looking down at him from her rostrum, a wide smile on her face and sparkling eyes. The Christmas lights were reflecting in her eyes and adding colourful sparks in her natural whiskey golden brown eyes. He found himself smiling back at her. His face wasn’t used to smiling. He wasn’t a sentimental one, like his predecessors could have been at times. She hated him for that sometimes, but not right now. She was radiating happiness and it was contagious. His eyes followed her hand as it disappeared in one of the several pockets of her overalls, as she pulled out a candy cane and started sucking on it. He could see the tip of her tongue licking the sweet and his eyes sparkled with lust.

 

“Enjoying the view, Doctor?”

 

She leant on the handrail and observed him. She pulled a couple of candy canes out and threw one at him that he caught easily. He wasn’t much into sweets but he started sucking it. The sugar attacked his taste buds and slipped on his tongue like an odious bitter pear.

 

“I was thinking about hanging some in the Christmas tree, what’s your opinion about it?”

“I don’t care.”

“Come on, Doctor, get in the mood.”

“Not my stuff. I let you do it because I love you.”

“That’s a good reason.”

 

She smiled at him and bit into another candy cane while he couldn’t even finish the first one. How could she eat those things and still have that wonderful smile? That woman was a huge mystery. A mystery he honestly didn’t want to solve so she could always keep him of his toes, like the adventures he had thought he would never have…


	6. Day 6: Bells (Rose/Clara)

Since she was a little girl, Clara Oswald loved hearing the bells chime. She used to sit by the window and listen to them. She found them comforting. They were steady, unchanging, always ringing each hour passing by. They never failed, never were late. They had always been there to fill the hole digging her heart slowly as she was losing her family, as she was falling into a life of loneliness. Her life was rhythmed by the bells ringing. Weddings of friends, funerals of her family, time running its course. The music of life and death. And love.

She had met her by chance in the school they were both working in. She was the new art teacher, and midday was ringing. The students had run out of the room and she was gathering her stuff and cleaning the room. Clara was going to her own classroom when she caught sight of her. The sun was bathing her into a golden halo, and the brunette’s heart was echoing the bells. She had lost her sense of time and reason as she observed the blonde. The latter had caught her eyes watching her and smiled shyly at her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Their first date happened in a coffee shop. Clara could remember the ringing of the small bell above the door every time someone was coming in. That ringing and the blonde’s laugh were the only thing she could remember from that day. It could have been a good or a bad day for her, she didn’t remember. Most likely a good one since Rose had wanted to see her again. Date after date, secret meetings in the school when no one was looking, they got to know each other. There were people suspecting something about them and rumours but the women were only playing with them.

Their first kiss happened during the Christmas night. They were walking under the snow right after dinner. Rose was overexcited and kept squealing at the Christmas lights and at the snow. It was amusing Clara actually. Rose had a child’s soul, and it was as refreshing as comforting. No one had made her feel so young, so happy and so safe since her mother. She hadn’t realised how much she had missed it until Rose came into her life. Perhaps she was the right person. Perhaps she would be the one showing her that there were things worth fighting for. And they kissed in front of a church and its midnight mass as midnight rang.

The future told her just that. Day after day, month after month, their relationship was improving and they were falling deeper in love with each other. They were sharing more and more things and soon enough, they moved in together in a small flat facing one of the churches of the town. Rose knew how much Clara loved the sound of the bells and she had insisted on them renting that one. And every night, they were sitting by the window with a cuppa and listening to the sound of bells chiming. That was during one of those nights that Rose asked for her hand in marriage and the last hit of eleven was still ringing in the air when Clara said yes.

And there they were, holding hands in the ceremony room of the city hall, facing the mayor and smiling. It was finally the day they were getting bounded to each other with a ring, the day their forever began. Their family and friends were all there to witness their union, to witness them saying yes to a forever they had thought impossible in the past. They walked through the doors to the sounds of people applauding and of the bells ringing the music of love Clara loved so much since forever…


	7. Day 7: Ring (Tentoo/Rose)

He had had the ring in the pocket of his jacket for weeks. The blue one. He had chosen this one specifically because it was the one he was wearing the day he was born, the one he was wearing when he told her the words she had so needed to hear from him on that beach. He might not be the original one, the Time Lord, but he was still the Doctor. Both Rose and him had had some troubles convincing themselves of that truth. Rose because she couldn’t see in him what she was seeing in his double, himself because he was having a hard time accepting his half human part. Thankfully, Rose had shaken her doubts and questions and she had helped him to accept himself fully and fit in that new world that wasn’t theirs in the first place.

It had taken them a few years to finally feel well in that world and to be settled down in their own house. They both were working for Torchwood. Rose was an experienced agent and he was training the new members and teaching them everything he knew about aliens and other threats from space and even from the Earth itself. He sometimes was going on the field, but never on missions as important and dangerous as Rose’s because he wasn’t experienced enough for it. Not as if he had spent over nine hundred years running in front of danger. But that didn’t count for anyone else but Rose, and he had to take tests. He had told everyone that he refused to do it – because he was too proud for it – but the truth was he had taken those tests and they said he had failed the psychological ones. Which he wasn’t gonna boast around with.

Last month, Rose had been brought back to Torchwood with all urgency. She had been badly injured during a mission on the field – facing an heliobrotozorax, they were doomed from the start! Heliobrotozoraxes were as bigger fighters as Sontarans, but they were far more offensive and dangerous. Their whole team had been slaughtered by a single specimen. A lot of dead and injured agents. That could have been avoided if they had asked him. Instead, he had had to pray for his girl to make it alive and to come back by his side. She had survived – thanks God or whoever had been listening to him – and recovered quite well and fast compared to the other agents – he wondered if the Bad Wolf was for something in that miracle – but she still was off duty and forced to stay home with her mother, and himself watching over her. Much to her displeasure.

However, today was the day she was allowed to go out and live again like before. She was fully healed. So he had organised the whole evening for him and her. Jackie and Pete knew what he had in mind. He had talked to them before buying the ring, before the mission turned to hell. He had wanted to propose the night Rose would return home. Troubles knocked on his door whenever he hoped everything would be alright. But tonight, he would take Rose to the best restaurant of that weird town where musicians would be waiting for them. They would play romantic _ballades_ while the couple would eat the set menu he had specifically asked for to the chef. And when dessert time would roll around, he would kneel down. In theory, everything was perfect.

In practise, nothing went that right. Rose had insisted on going to Torchwood and seeing how things were working since their last mission. While she was gone, he decided to get ready, but the fuses tripped and he was forced to take a cold shower because he had no sonic screwdriver to fix it, and while he was dealing with that awful shower, he got a call from the musicians who were cancelling their representation because one of them had his fingers broken and it was impossible to replace him so quickly. Then, while he was getting dressed, he noticed his jacket had a hole and he had to sew it the best he could. And it continued with him cutting himself while shaving, with his hair not wanting to be the way he wanted them, with the boss of the restaurant calling him to inform him that the restaurant was forced to close tonight because of a fire. All his plans were ruined.

He was sat on the couch, his back arched, the head bowed, the elbows on the knees and his hands folded together when Rose came home. She frowned and came to sit beside him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his head softly. She noticed the band aids on the tip of his fingers and the cuts on his face.

 

“What is going on? Has something happened while I was gone?”

“I wanted this evening to be perfect. I wanted it to be really special for you. But everything went wrong.”

“Are we celebrating something?”

“We almost did.”

“Has it something to do with the engagement ring in your pocket?”

 

The Doctor sighed. She knew it. Everything was definitely ruined now. Why was nothing going his way? Even the simple things were failing. Being domestic maybe wasn’t for him.

 

“It fell from your pocket when I was doing the laundry. I put it back into it before putting the jacket in your dressing room.”

“I was supposed to propose after your mission, but it too went wrong. So I waited until you were healed. I’ve prepared everything for you to have the best evening ever. It was perfect, but it failed. Everything failed.”

 

He looked so sad that Rose felt her heart break. She held him tighter against her and rubbed his back to comfort him. He leaned into her embrace and closed his eyes. Only her could soothe him so easily and quickly.

 

“You know, I don’t need you to prove your love to me with all the great things and clichés. Just be yourself, that’s enough for me.”

“You’re extraordinary. I needed to do something extraordinary for you.”

 

But since she wanted him to be himself, since the surprise was ruined, he broke the hug and got up. He found a candle and lighted it up. He put it down on the coffee table and pulled the ring out of his pocket. He kneeled down and took her hand in his.

 

“Rose Tyler, you’ve changed my life from the first day we met and made me a better man. I love you more than a Broncotapax from the planet of love loves its partner. Would you make me the happiest man of this weird parallel universe by accepting to marry me?” He showed her the ring and stopped for a moment. “I’ve asked your mother first. She’s okay with it.”

 

Rose smiled at his last words. Only him could go and ask his mother before proposing. Jackie would never admit it but she liked the Doctor. She couldn’t do otherwise anyway because Rose wouldn’t break up or get separated from the Doctor. They had promised themselves forever, they didn’t plan on breaking their word. So, she leaned forward and softly kissed his lips.

 

“Forever, Doctor.”

“It’s a yes?”

“Definitely a yes.”

 

The Doctor smiled and kissed her back. His evening didn’t go as planned, but it still was good. Rose made them an amazing dinner, and they spent part of the night dancing together in their living room to the song of another universe that reminded them of their first dance together…


	8. Day 8: Snowflake (Thirteen/Rose)

The first snowflake hit the tip of her new nose, and the cold of it confused her senses. They were still adjusting to her new body, and her body temperature was too high for a Time Lady. She was reacting like a human, an ordinary human, when she was an extraordinary alien. But, once again, she just came out of another regeneration and her senses needed some time to come back to normal. She also needed time to get used to her female body after more than a thousand years in a male body. Her fashion sense was terrible, and if she had had a lot of different relationships with women before, she wasn’t used to have woman’s curves. She had spent some time in the bathroom, observing her body, tracing it, weighing the pros and cons of it. However, whether she liked it or not, she was stuck with that appearance until her next regeneration.

Another snowflake hit the warm skin of her cheek. Everything felt so new, and it was as confusing as ever. She raised a pale long and fine hand and reached for her face. She caught the small snowflake and made it roll between her thumb and forefinger. It had already melt. It was nothing more than a simple molecule of water. Some things could change so quickly. It was the reason why she was always running. There was always something new to see. Humans said that curiosity killed the cat but curiosity was what made her keep going on. There were unsolved mysteries waiting for her, unbelievable miracles to be a witness of. She had seen a lot through her lives but not with those eyes; not with that body, and with her new gender, she could have a brand new perspective on things she had seen and done as a man.

The snow was falling slowly, the snowflakes bigger than before. They were covering her shoulders and clutching at her blonde hair, but she wasn’t so cold anymore. Her body was adjusting its temperature. The after effects of the regeneration were softer than they used to be. She was still in that vulnerable condition that was making her an easy target but she couldn’t get tired of the feeling that everything was new again to her. Something other species couldn’t get. The feeling to be able to rediscover things as if it was the first time. The feeling of starting everything again.

 

“It reminds me of the first time you’ve regenerated before me,” said a velvety voice behind her.

“A pretty long time ago.”

 

She too remembered the day she had fought the whole Dalek’s fleet to save a simple human instead of running away like her instinct was telling her to at that moment. Nevertheless, her feelings had told her otherwise and she had followed her heard instead of her reason. And she was right.

 

“I’ve missed that Northern accent.”

 

She did too, to be honest. Her Northern self was completely destroyed, on the edge of giving up and waiting for death, but she had been lucky enough to save the life of a blonde girl that had changed her whole life, and put the pieces of her self back together again and again. Every time they were losing each other, the fate was putting them back together. She was to never forget the day Rose Tyler crossed the void to come back to her. Now, they were as inseparable as their intertwined fingers. They just needed to find a way to stop the ageing of Rose before the end of her life and everything would be perfect…


	9. Day 9: Lights (Nine/Rose/Liv)

Maxence was sitting on the bench outside his house with a cup of tea in the hand. He had had to remove the snow from the seat. It had been snowing all night and the garden and roof were covered with the white powder. Only his footsteps had trodden upon the untouched cold cover… And small prints of paws. Surprisingly, Oreo, Rose’s cat had decided to follow him. At first, she had been reluctant. She had hissed at the cold snow and had followed him anyway. Now, she was cuddled against his chest into the light jacket he was wearing. She was keeping herself warm and was warming him at the same time. He sipped his tea. Compared to the days he had spent in the streets, that night wasn’t that cold to him. Anyway, he had wanted to have some fresh air and clear his mind. He was also waiting for something. A family tradition.

When he was a young boy, his mother, his brother and him all came out in the garden and sat there after their after school snack and they only talked about their day. When winter was hitting, they sat there and waited for the Christmas lights to show up. Their own Christmas lights, and the ones of their neighbours. They watched the district slowly be coloured with bright lights as if they were watching fireworks. They kept the tradition over the years and when he was absent, it was only because he was on a mission or on the battlefield. And then, he had been missing and had come back from the war zone. Those last years had been spent on torture, cares and flight. He could see the Christmas lights from the park, but never paid attention to them. Why would he when he had lost his mother and brother? But now that he was back in the family house, he couldn’t help but fall back in his old habits.

His tea was lukewarm now, but he kept sipping on it. The cat stretched and found a better spot, pressing her paws on old wounds that were still hurting sometimes, but he said nothing. He turned his head to the back door of the house when the external light was lighted, breaking the darkness. Liv came out, all dressed in warm clothes, scarf, hat and gloves on. She walked to him.

 

“What’re doin’ here?” she asked him, her voice muffled by her scarf.

 

He looked up at her but the light was blinding him so he looked back down at his cup of tea that was almost empty now. Liv removed the rest of the snow from the bench and sat down beside him. She wrapped a blanket around his shoulders.

 

“I thought you might be cold.”

 

Maxence nodded to thank her. He wasn’t cold but the cover was warm and would prevent him from getting a cold or the flu. So, he wrapped the blanket around him to give the cat some more warmth. That was the purr of contentment she made that betrayed her presence.

 

“Damn! Is she with you? Rose has been looking for her for a while.”

 

Maxence only smiled. Rose should have known that her cat would be with him. They were good friends, almost inseparables. She should have asked him first instead of looking for the cat everywhere.

 

“I’ve heard you. Last night. You were reading something, for Oreo I guess.” Maxence shrugged lightly. He indeed had been reading a story to the cat after a nightmare. “Why don’t you talk to her? She thinks you hate her.”

“Words are overrated,” he simply replied to Liv’s surprise. “She doesn’t need me talking to understand me perfectly. I love the relationship we have. It’s not spoiled with lies.”

 

That was all. He sipped the rest of his tea and put the cup down on the bench just when Rose came out of the house. Liv was still thinking about Maxence’s words. Simple. Powerful.

 

“Have you found her?”

“Oh… yeah,” answered Liv. “She’s with Maxence.”

 

Rose shook her head, smiling. Of course she would be there. Maxence tapped the bench for the blonde to come and sit on the other side of him. She did, surprised, and together, they watched the lights showing up like the new family they were now…


	10. Day 10: Peace

The Doctor had always been seeking for peace. His peace of mind mostly, for he was tired of waking up trembling and begging for the torture to stop, of having to stay locked in a room until the shield he always had around him was rebuilt so he could face Rose and avoid her questions. The peace of the universe too. Each war he was stepping in or being a simple witness of reminded him of the war he had ended in a very tragic way. Plus, if the universe was peaceful, he would be able to rest for a little bit before running again… Who was he kidding? He needed the adrenalin, and the running. He never got rest because his mind needed to always be busy with something, and the running… Well, he had a very high blood pressure so he needed the sports not to go mad.

There was one thing he needed right now to be in peace, but that was something he couldn’t get. Peace. It was something so simple to dream about, but so complicated to accomplish. He sighed and leant his cheek in his hand. There was no way to get around it, to avoid this. That was the problem when your companion was human: you had to follow some human rules. And when that human had a family, things were getting really awful. Jackie Tyler was the most irritating person he had met so far. She could piss him off faster than it took him to say Clom, the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius. She also was a quick slapper. She had hit him more than once and he was too much of a gentleman to hit back or say something that wasn’t dripping with sarcasm.

That was why he was sitting in Jackie’s tiny flat and listening to the old woman too loud while Rose was grabbing some little things she needed. The TARDIS was her home now. She was living in it permanently now, and she was moving her stuff in her room. Jackie wasn’t happy with that of course. No mother was happy to see their children leave home and have a life of their own, but it was harder when your kid was leaving with a daft old alien traveling through all of time and space with no concept of punctuality. He had been a father a long, long time ago, and he was as protective of his kids as Jackie was. He couldn’t blame her considering the sort of life he was living. He wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, but he had given Rose the choice and she had made it. But Jackie kept blaming him for it.

He was making efforts to stay calm, really. That woman didn’t know him, she didn’t know his story, and she was making assumptions about him. What would she say if she knew the whole story? If she knew that he had exterminated the whole species, _his_ own species? She sure would keep Rose away from him for good, and he would have to go back to his TARDIS and let himself drift away until the end come. Unless Jackie killed him first. It would be a relief and a bother at once. He would regenerate, but his lives were limited now. Only two to go and it would be done. The Doctor would disappear forever, and he would be in peace. Finally. He would have deserved to die with the others. He wasn’t meant to survive. He wasn’t meant to survive, he wanted to die with them all. But here was his punishment: he was living with all the guilt and pain on his shoulders.

Jackie was still rambling, but he wasn’t listening to her anymore. He had been seeking for peace and had just met his demons. Now, they were overwhelming him in the worst moment possible. He wasn’t in his TARDIS, in his room, away from looks and questions. He was exposed and vulnerable. Far, far away from the peace he wanted. He needed to control himself and not blow a fuse. He was rather unstable and mad. He didn’t know what he could do when he was losing it, and it terrified him.

 

“Doctor?”

 

A soft velvety voice with an estate accent full of concern. A warm hand on his leather-clad shoulder. The unleashed storm in his mind turned to the usual brooding. It was calmer, still about to explode, but it could wait until he was alone. He was having it all back under a weak control.

 

“I’m ready. We can go.”

 

He looked up at her, silent. She could see his troubles but didn’t say anything about it. Jackie was grumbling something. She disagreed completely, but he didn’t care. Rose had made her choice and he wouldn’t let her go. The blonde seemed to have a certain power on him, the power of bringing peace to his tormented soul and he was selfish enough to take advantage of it…


	11. Day 11: Mistletoe

He was carrying a bit of mistletoe in his pocket all the time. It was December and Christmas was coming. Kissing under the mistletoe was a Christmas tradition. Well, it was in the parallel world Rose and him came from. Here things were slightly different, less joyful, more conventional. Since Pete was the CEO of Torchwood and of the Vittex company, he was a very influent and rich man who was giving parties for almost every existing celebration of that world. Celebrations that were different from what he was used to. Easter didn’t exist anymore – except for the secret Easter him and Rose had every year – and there was something called the Balloons day to celebrate the invention of aerostats. It was the national day here. How weird. That universe was dull and everything looked so depressing. Even Christmas.

Finding mistletoe had been really hard. Not drawing suspicions on him had been even harder. Thankfully, he had his little companion, Tony. The little boy was bored most of the time and he loved hanging around with his eccentric stepbrother who always had amazing stories and goofy ideas for invented adventures. They had lived the secret ‘operation mistletoe’ together and now, the Doctor had his small branch of mistletoe in his pocket and it meant nothing to people from here. Only Rose and him could know what it was for. Jackie too, but he wasn’t gonna tell her why he had it or she would slap him and call him a pervert. So, he was keeping it a secret. It was for the better. He wanted to surprise Rose. He was full of little attentions and loved reminding her of habits they were the only ones to keep. He hoped she would like that one.

He was walking through the corridors of Torchwood every day and hoping to meet Rose by chance. There weren’t many missions lately, as if ‘paranormal’ activities were stopping for Christmas time. Everyone was speaking about the next party that would occur in the Tyler’s mansion. They all said he should be happy but it would be boring as hell. They would all be hung-up and talking about serious things. So far away from the Christmas spirit. And he was showing them one of the many traditions. Every time he was meeting Rose, he held the mistletoe above their heads and they kissed. He sure had gotten into some troubles, had been told a few times to stop that but he continued because his girl loved it, because they were spreading the Christmas spirit as they had always known it in their original world they often missed.

However, today, he wasn’t in the mood. He was reading the latest report that had been given to everyone that morning. The contents of it didn’t please him at all. He now had a superior, someone above him in the teaching department, and he had to go to him for everything. As if he could ask someone as inexperienced as that guy for anything alien-related. It was a topsy-turvy world!

 

“Careful! Slick ground!”

 

The Doctor didn’t hear the warning and was surprised when his feet met the slippery ground. He couldn’t catch anything to stop his fall and his back brutally hit the floor. The air was expelled from his lungs – oh how he missed the bypass respiratory system of his Time Lord self! – and he banged his head hard. He let out a groan as fake stars floated above his eyes. His senses were temporarily off. That was one of the inconvenient of being partly human. But even as a partly human being, he had a superior hearing, and he could distinctly hear the laughs that followed his fall as the papers of the file he was reading fell on him.

 

“Hey, thick head! What are they employing you for? Checking the ground’s cleanliness?”

 

There was the sound of a slap and quick footsteps came closer to him. He immediately recognised the soft hand that stroked his face. Rose, his Rose, had seen him falling dismally while she was bringing the newest members of the Torchwood force field, the agents he had formed on the theory part, to the briefing room for their first mission. And that guy always bullying him had been promoted.

 

“Doctor? Do you hear me?”

 

Her voice was music to his ears, and he smiled like an idiot. Which confirmed her that he was hearing her. She knew about the little dick bullying him. She had slapped him just minutes ago. She knew the crush he had on her, like many of the guys here. But she was already taken.

 

“Do you still have that branch of mistletoe in your pocket?” she murmured in his ear, and he nodded, surprised. “Kiss me now.”

“What?” he mumbled.

“He’s got a crush on me. Make him jealous.”

 

He didn’t need her to tell him a third time. He put his hand on the back of her head and pulled her closer to him. Her soft lips brushed over his before he pressed them against each other for a kiss. He couldn’t see the face of the little dick but he could only imagine his face green with envy and that made him smile and deepen the kiss…


	12. Candles (Thirteen/Rose)

She was observing the candles on the table with a dubious expression. She had left just a few minutes to go and pick the book she had spotted during the day Rose and her had spent in the streets of Bocolus. She hadn’t resisted to the temptation of entering into a library just for the smell of books. Something she particularly liked and that was always making Rose laugh a bit. However, she was an intellectual and she loved reading – and Rose loved when she was reading to her – and that book had caught her eye. She had regretted not buying them while they were wandering around and she had had to go back and buy it. That was all excited, with a grin on her face that she had come back to her loyal blue box only to find her lighted with dim lights and humming contently. And as she was making her way to her room to put down the book, she had passed before the kitchen and had been stopped in her tracks.

While she was gone, Rose seemed to have decided that tonight would be a quiet one, but also a romantic one. The table was elegantly decorated and lighted by tallow candles. Everything was made for the both of them to have a very nice evening and the smell coming out of the oven made her stomach growl. Rose had been cooking. She glanced at her watch. She had been gone for only a few minutes like she thought, and the TARDIS hadn’t moved despite Rose knowing how to fly her now. But the ship had something to do with it all. It was impossible to have done so much in such a little time. Not without the help of someone who could play with time. It was nicely done, and her grin widened. Rose was nowhere to be seen so the Doctor made a quick run to their room, put the book down and got changed before coming back to the kitchen. Still no one in sight.

Now, she was waiting for Rose to show up. There were two covers, but there also were two small gifts down next to the flute for champagne. Only on her side of the table. Had she forgotten something? A birthday? An anniversary? Was it Christmas already? It was something for her since the gifts were on her side, but she couldn’t get the reason why Rose would suddenly decide to offer her a romantic dinner and gifts. There must be one. She tapped the table lightly as her mind was racing. What were they celebrating? And where was Rose? Her eyes drifted on the candle facing her. The golden flame reminded her of the golden sparks shining in Rose’s brown eyes. When they had first met in that basement, she didn’t have them, but after she took the whole vortex into her, some residue of the time energy had stayed in her and coloured her eyes. That was the only after affect she had had. Not a bad one.

Footsteps made themselves heard in the corridors. Slow footsteps. She recognised them as Rose’s and was tempted to get up to go and help her. The blonde girl she had fallen in love with wasn’t that young anymore. The time had passed by and she had gotten older. She was suffering from the usual troubles humans had when they were too old: rheumatism, osteoarthritis and everything that was going with it. She couldn’t walk as well as before, but she was as proud as before and refused any kind of help. In her mind, she still was young, but the Doctor could see the differences and it was breaking her hearts to see her decaying every day. She pushed the thought aside. Rose never liked her thinking that way. She wanted them to enjoy their time together as much as they could. That’s precisely what the Doctor was planning on doing, and worrying wherever the now grey-haired woman wasn’t there to see it.

 

“I’m not as fast as I used to be,” Rose joked as she came into the kitchen.

 

The Doctor looked up at Rose and smiled at her. Her beloved better half was as beautiful as ever. She had found a nice dress in the wardrobe and was wearing normal shoes since she couldn’t bear the high heels anymore. She had put on some make-up and combed her hair. Everything for their night to be perfect.

 

“I didn’t know we were celebrating something.”

“We aren’t. I just wanted us to have a nice evening to finish that perfect day.”

“Why the gifts?”

“Do I need a reason to offer you something?”

“Never.”

 

Rose smiled and sat down on the free chair facing the Doctor. They shared their dinner in a joyous and relaxed atmosphere. They didn’t talk much, and the Doctor opened her gifts when dessert time rolled around. Rose had found a beautiful pendant in the shape of a rose earlier and she had bought it along with a golden necklace. Her thin wrinkled hands fastened it around the Doctor’s neck so that way, she _‘would always have a part of her with her’_. The Doctor didn’t like the sound of those words, just like she didn’t like the coughing fit Rose suffered from at the end of their dinner. The candles were blown, and they headed back to their room where the Doctor would spend the night taking care of her dear Rose and making sure she was feeling okay…


	13. Snowball fight (Eleven/Rose)

_‘They really are kids,’_ thought Jackie to herself.

 

She was watching the Doctor and Rose playing outside as if they were eight years old kids when they were grown-up adults. Jackie wasn’t sure about the Doctor. His latest regeneration was surprising to say the least. When Rose had called her to let her know that the Doctor had changed once again, she had expected to see another pretty boy, proud and sarcastic, but when she had seen him… Oh, a pretty boy indeed. An unexpected toddler stuck in an adult body too. She had immediately missed the precedent Doctor. She didn’t know what to think about him yet. She would need some time. Like the two others. But that one? Too bright, too energetic to be honest.

They had come over for Christmas. It wasn’t what the Doctor had planned but whatever the incarnation, he always satisfied all of Rose’s desires. Christmas was a family tradition, and so Rose was coming back to the Powell Estates with her beloved Doctor to celebrate it the Tyler’s way, even if he didn’t like it. That year, it was just the three of them. Mickey had stayed with his girlfriend who was expected their first child and since Rose was traveling with the Doctor, she didn’t have many friends left on Earth. Just the three of them was alright though. It was a nice evening.

They were about to eat the dessert when the Doctor noticed that it was snowing. He had run to the window right away and when he had seen it was true, he had rushed outside, followed by Rose. Jackie had sighed and cleared the table for the dessert. They shouldn’t be long. Rose would be cold quickly and she would have to come back home to get warm. She just hadn’t thought that Rose would find warm clothes in the TARDIS. The Doctor might look like a big kid but he was very attentive to his girl’s needs and wouldn’t let her be cold. That was one of his qualities.

That was when Jackie heard the laughs that she understood they wouldn’t be back soon. She glanced through the window to see them building a snowman and throwing snow at each other. Just like kids. She sighed and decided to go outside too. She got ready to face the cold weather and went downstairs. She found the snowman, but didn’t find her daughter and the stupid alien. She didn’t hear them either. Where the hell had they gone? Jackie started walking toward the TARDIS. The blue box was there, but before she reached it, something hit her back and someone laughed. She turned around but didn’t see anyone.

 

“You think it’s funny? Come out if you’re a man, Doctor!”

“And have you slapping me? Never!”

“Grow a pair!”

“Fight me!”

 

Another snowball hit her on the side. That time, Jackie made her own snowball and threw it in the direction the precedent snowballs had come from. She avoided the third one. They wanted to play, she was gonna play with them. She pretended to go back home but hid instead. And she waited. After a few minutes, the Doctor and Rose came out of their hidden place, laughing, and when they expected it the least, Jackie threw them snowballs.

 

“Oi!”

“You thought I’d be gone without a revenge? You don’t know me well enough, Doctor!”

“Thinking about what I’m thinking?” the Doctor asked Rose.

“Snowball fight!”

 

As soon as the word was given, the fight started. Screams of surprise and joy along with laughs filled the air of the Estates as they threw snowballs at each other until late in the night. They got yelled at some times but they didn’t care as long as they had fun…


	14. Family (Twelve/Rose)

He didn’t do families, he had said it over and over again to his past companions. No families, no domestics. That was the rules when it came to travelling with him. The companions usually followed those rules. They never followed the ‘don’t wander off’ one though, but it was when they disobeyed that the real adventure was beginning, when the fun was coming. However, dealing with families never was fun. It was all about weird questions, angry answers, painful slaps and awkward situations. He had lived it with all his companions. All those awkward moments where he had to explain what he was doing in life and what he was employing their family member or friend for, and immediately followed by the unavoidable slap when he mumbled a vague answer. He was a traveller. He never stopped, he never stayed. He came, helped and flew away.

It had always been that way and he never thought that could change. Except it did. As he was running away from the Autons in a basement in London, he had met that blonde girl. Rose Tyler. Beautiful, charming, loving Rose. Love at first sight almost. Surprisingly, that young human had been what he desperately needed after the war. Compassion, absolution. Rose’s presence was like applying a balm on his wound that was slowly healing. Every day, he was finding a new reason to keep living, to keep fighting, and soon enough, the feeling of happiness lightened the guilt and the weight of his loss without removing it from his shoulders. He could forgive himself, not totally, but just enough to keep going, just enough to allow himself to love that blonde human that was giving so much to him, never expecting him to give as much back.

The curse of the Time Lords didn’t allow him to tell her so though. He didn’t want to be the powerless witness of her decaying and dying. That would be unbearable for him. It would destroy the small fragile bubble of happiness and well-being he had built around them both. Nevertheless, after he almost lost her during the battle of Canary Wharf; he had been unable to keep his feelings for himself anymore. She was the first one to confess her love for him, and he just had to tell her that it was mutual. She had loved the broken soldier from the start and had loved the pretty boy he had become. She had loved the big kid that followed and she now loved the grumpy man he was. Loving her was easy, and she was making loving him easy too, when he was the most unlovable man ever seen. He had stopped hating on himself thanks to her though.

Rose Tyler had domesticated him and loving her wasn’t the hardest thing to do. Being a part of every family reunion she was forcing him to go to was. Jackie and him had never been good friends. She had flirted with him, threatening him, slapped him and insulting him. She was the worst mother-in-law he could have dreamt of. She was always judging his regenerations – as if he could choose what he was ending up with! – and nit-picking. He was being nice and never replied to any of her reproaches or cutting remarks by anything else but sarcasm. Which was making her angry most of the time. Every meeting with her was hell, and he sometimes was trying to convince Rose to change her mind or to go alone. It never worked. Since they were a married couple – according the Time Lords’ laws – he was forced to go with her. And Christmas was a family tradition he couldn’t flee from.

That Christmas wasn’t as awful as it could have been in the past. Rose had prepared something for him this year. Something he hadn’t expected. Everything was so normal at first that he hadn’t suspected anything. Jackie was cooking and he was placing the gifts under the Christmas tree – not that he liked it, but who would do it properly if it wasn’t him? – while Rose was in town for the last errands. She had sent him away when she came back and when he was called back, there was no one in Jackie’s flat, but the TARDIS finally let him in. Rose had been waiting for him, and when she grabbed his hand and led him through the corridors, he could feel her excitement, an excitement he only understood when she made him enter a room where all his friends were gathered: Sarah Jane, Mickey, Jack, Martha, Wilf, Clara and many others he hadn’t seen in decades were here. They had travelled all the way to here so they could spend this Christmas together. And for once, just this once, he could love families, because his whole family was here for him.


	15. Day 15: Santa Claus and/or elves (Tentoo/Rose)

Tony was super excited. Today was the day he was gonna meet Santa Claus for real. He had seen the sign last time he had gone to the mall with his mummy and he hadn’t stopped asking for her to take him back so he could talk to Father Christmas and asked him for something special, but Jackie had been too busy with the preparations for the Torchwood Christmas party that would happen next week and hadn’t been able to take him there. So, Rose had promised that the Doctor and her would take him, and then, it had been impossible to hold him back. He kept running everywhere in the Tyler’s mansion screaming that he was gonna meet Santa Claus. No one had managed to calm him down. He was gonna realise a dream, it made them all smile honestly. They wouldn’t break a child’s dream.

What Rose hadn’t told her family was that the Doctor was as excited as Tony for that meeting. He had never believed the big red guy could exist before but everything was different here. What was a myth in their original universe could be real in that one and he couldn’t wait until he saw the guy with his own eyes. He had decided to dress himself as a Christmas elf to please him, and he was now wandering the house in green and red clothes and with that terrible green hat with a bell that was ringing with each step he was taking. At first, she had burst out laughing but after a few hours, she had insisted for him to take it off, and now, he was sulking and refused to talk to her until she accepted him wearing the clothes again.

However, when the time to go to the mall came, she hadn’t changed her mind and forced him to pull on his blue suit, the one she liked the most, with a white shirt, his red tie and Converses. He didn’t know why she had wanted him to wear that suit specifically. Tony had imitated him. He was wearing the small suit Jackie usually dressed him with for the Tyler’s parties. Something was up, and the Doctor didn’t know what. It was making him nervous. His hand was moist when he grabbed Rose’s to comfort himself, and his heart was beating fast. He had some troubles dealing with emotions. His human side was always overwhelmed with them and he didn’t know what to do when it happened. And that was what was happening right now; but thanks to Rose, he wouldn’t do anything. She would keep him under control.

 

“Why so anxious suddenly?” she whispered in his ear.

“You’re up to something.”

“Yep.”

“And I don’t know what it is.”

“That’s a surprise and you’ll love it,” she teased him.

 

She kissed the corner of his lips softly and they made their way to the Father Christmas stack. Tony was grinning wildly. He was impatient and yet, they had to wait because there were other kids before them. Rose talked to the photographer for a few minutes when it was their turn. Tony was already on Santa Claus’ lap and murmuring something into his ear.

 

“I want Rosie and the Doc to be happy. They want a baby. Can you give it to them?”

“I’ve had their Christmas list for some time now,” replied Santa. “They’re gonna have their baby, I promise.”

 

Santa winked at the little boy who giggled. After that, he did the best smile and pose for the photographer so his mummy would have a great picture. They did several actually. One with him alone, one with his sister, one with the Doc, one together and one with just the Doc and Rose. That way, everyone was happy for the rest of the day.

The real surprise came on Christmas day though. While Tony was discovering his brand new toys, Jackie and Pete were given the pictures of Rose and Tony with Santa, and the Doctor had the one where him and Rose were together. But the biggest surprise was the other picture Rose had put with it in the package. A black and white picture. It wasn’t very clear but the Doctor was clever enough to understand what it was. An ultrasound. His Rose was expecting their first kid. Santa Claus had done his job right this year…


	16. Day 16: Mittens (Ten/Rose)

They had been stuck in that small shack on the top of the mountain for hours now. There was a fireplace but it was desperately out. There was no wood to light a fire, and it was too cold outside to go and seek for some. Plus, it would be too soaked and wouldn’t burn. What an idea he had had to come and play in the snow because he had thought it would be fun! They had landed shortly before a snowstorm. They had lost the TARDIS, and lost themselves in the blizzard. He had never let go of Rose’s hand, always making sure she was following him and didn’t suffer too much from the cold. It had been a chance to find that shelter lost under a large hill of snow. They had come into it, only to find out that it was empty. No help was waiting for them here, they had to handle things on their own, and it was harder than the Doctor had thought it would.

The shelter was desperately empty. No wood to light a fire, no tea, and nothing to heat it anyway. The Doctor had only found an old shabby blanket full of holes, and had wrapped Rose into it so she wouldn’t get too cold. The wind was blowing hard and seeped in the fireplace’s conduit and through the tiny cracks in the walls. Despite the warm clothes she was wearing and the blanket, Rose was trembling. She was cold, and he didn’t know what to do to help her. His temperature was adjusting itself so he wasn’t suffering from the cold, but if they stayed here for too long, his body would lack the essential nutrients he needed for its working and he would be as screwed as a human. He had to go back outside and find the TARDIS. Not for his sake, but for Rose’s. He glanced at her. She was sat in front of the fireplace, holding the blanket tight around her body, and he could see her trembling. He was angry at himself.

He walked to her and sat by her side. He brought his knees to his chest and hugged them, staring at the dark hole where a fire was supposed to burn and warm them.

 

“I’m sorry, Rose.”

“’S not your fault.”

“All of time and space, and I got us into trouble…”

“Troubles follow you everywhere.”

“Put this on my grave when I’d be dead.”

“Do Time Lords have graves?”

“No. We burn the bodies. There are too many secrets about our species to leave a body to rot.”

“It will be hard to burn any body here. Do you think cryogenics could save us?”

“It requires a lot of knowledge and means.”

“I was joking.”

 

There was a silence and they both stared at the fireplace. The Doctor was trying to find the right words to tell her the plan he had in mind. A plan. That would make her laugh. He never had any plan. However, when her life was on the line, he was doing unexpected things.

 

“I have to go and find the TARDIS.”

“No, you’re not!” exclaimed Rose, turning her head to look at him. “Superior biology or not, you’ll die out there!”

“But if I don’t, you could die too, and that’s something I can’t let happen.”

 

He took one of her hands in his. Despite the thick mittens she was wearing, he could feel that her skin was cold. As if all the clothes weren’t keeping the warmth she was trying to get. He took the other mitten clad hand and gently put them to his mouth. He blew some warm air on them, hoping to help a bit.

 

“There’s another solution,” she offered shyly.

“You’re not thinking…”

“We don’t have much of a choice.”

“But you…”

“You can adjust your body temperature. It will be a bit too hot for you to have a human body temperature, but you’d do it for me?”

 

He only hesitated for a few seconds. Half a second actually. She was trembling harder and he caught a light blue colour on her lips. If he didn’t do anything, she would die from the cold. Slowly, he took the blanket off her shoulders. He was adjusting his temperature as he unzipped her coat and pulled it off. Layer by layer, he undressed her. Oh, he had dreamt of it many and many times before but never in those conditions. He wanted to kiss her pale skin and slowly make love to her, not undress her for a little bit of warmth.

He bit his bottom lip hard when she started undressing him too, but he didn’t stop her. Her hands were gentle, soft, cold, and soon enough, they both were naked. The moment of awkwardness that followed only lasted a couple of seconds before Rose’s cold lips crashed over his. All his defences were down and he kissed her back. They lost their control and let their feelings took over. The Doctor could realise the fantasy that had haunted his dream for so long, and as they were making love, they didn’t see Rose’s eyes turning gold and the Wolf summoning the TARDIS who appeared all around them. Too busy to notice they were back home, the two lovers were abandoning the shack, only leaving a pair of mittens behind them…


	17. Day 17: Joy (Nine/Rose/Liv)

Rose had never seen so much joy on the face of the broken soldier before. She remembered the first days she had spent with the man, how sheltered he was from her and the rest of the world, how scared of everything he was. He was back from a war that was still holding him prisoner. He was suffering from pains, flashbacks and hallucinations, but also from the recent loss of his mother. All of that made him real hard to reach, but the combined efforts of Rose and Liv had helped him to open up a little bit more. He still wasn’t talking. At least, not to her. Her job as a therapist was a barrier between them. He refused to talk to her because of her job. He must have had a very bad experience with therapists before, but he wasn’t gonna give her any answer. Not yet. She still had hope that he would someday talk to her. Even just a word would make her happy.

However, she could interpret his every reaction. That’s how he was communicating with her, how she was understanding him. In a way, she loved that relationship. It was slow, quiet, better than a normal relationship. Oh, she wasn’t spitting on her relationship with Liv. The two of them were happy together, as she had always thought they would be, but if she had to say the truth, she fancied Maxence. She was observing him sometimes. He was basking in his silence and reading lots of books when he wasn’t drawing. He was always so calm, and when he was having a violent nightmare or hallucination, she was bringing him back to reality, and he was staying in her arms, vulnerable and trembling, as she comforted him by rocking him, her fingers gently running through his hair, until he was calm again.

Christmas was approaching, but she didn’t have any idea of what she could offer him. She knew he had bought some gifts for them. He had taken Rose with him to buy Liv’s gifts, and Liv to buy Rose’s. Liv certainly had something for him. She had refused to tell it to her girlfriend though. But Rose didn’t have any idea of what she could get to him. Until she found those boxes while she was cleaning the house. They were hidden in the living-room. She had never seen them before. She had opened them to satisfy her curiosity and found letters and pictures and videos. She had quickly realised that it was memories of the two brothers. Letters and objects from them when they were on the battlefield. Their mother had kept it all. There was one box for Maxence and one for Tegan. She had wondered if Maxence would like to have them, and decided to offer them to him.

He had been surprised when he had opened the two packages, but when he had realised what it was, he had been moved at first, and as he was discovering the contains of the boxes, joy had overrun his face, and now both Liv and Rose were the witness of one of the too rare true smiles on his face as he was reading one of the many letters his brother had written. He was happy to have it. That was a gift he clearly hadn’t expected. He had expected none to be honest, but the two women had spoiled him. And he had spoiled them in return. It was one of the best Christmas he had in years. He suddenly got up and hugged Rose really tight. His lips brushed over hers in a quick kiss before he went to hug Liv and gave her the same kiss. All his being was breathing out the joy he was feeling right now and it was a good thing to see. Both women were smiling. They were all happy tonight, and Maxence’s heart was full of joy when he lay down in bed with the two boxes close to him…


	18. Day 18: Tree (Twelve/Rose)

The Doctor was standing in the middle of a forest of Christmas trees. He was looking grumpy as usual. He didn’t want to be here, but Rose had dragged him along when he could have been in the cosy library of the TARDIS, reading the latest scientific reports of all the universe to keep himself updated. Oh, he was doing it all only for his lovely blonde, and she was doing it for their adorable twins. Jackie had filled their minds with Christmas tales and they had wanted to live it at least once. With Rose, they had long stopped it. They were all adults. Just a dinner together and occasionally some gifts. Nothing too annoying. But then, they had had twins and Jackie had insisted on them taking the old traditions back for the kids. Rose had accepted and if his tenth and eleventh incarnations would have been happy, he wasn’t at all.

So, Jackie Tyler had sent them to buy a tree while she looked after the twins. That was why he was standing there in the cold winter night of December to find the perfect tree. Rose was chatting with the seller and he was grumbling, hoping she would do it quicker so they could get back home. Last time he had been attacked by a Christmas tree. It was a very uncomfortable situation to be surrounded by them now. Rose and Jackie seemed to have forgotten the incident – a very human superpower – but he hadn’t. He wouldn’t admit that it was giving him the chills. The Doctor would never admit that he was scared. Not in front of his blonde. She would definitely mock him, and if his past selves could make fun of themselves – he remembered the fez all too well – he wasn’t that type of man.

 

“What do you think of this one, Doctor?”

 

He looked at Rose. She was pointing at one of the trees. To him, they all looked the same. Tall threatening conifers with their deadly pine needles always scratching your skin and ripping your clothes. And you had to hoover all the time because they kept falling. Christmas trees were a pain, and humans were slaughtering them every year for a few days of festivities before throwing them into a truck and straight to the recycling centre or the fireplace though it wasn’t burning that well. No wonder why most species avoided the planet when you saw what humans were doing to the most harmless things. He shrugged.

 

“I don’t care, honey. Take the one you want.”

 

He hated the cheesy tone he was using, but it was dripping with sarcasm. Even his smile was a fake one, and Rose understood it well. She walked closer to him and wrapped an arm around his waist. She put her chin on his chest and looked up at him.

 

“I know you’re not into Christmas stuff, but make an effort, okay? It’s the twins’ first Christmas and probably my mom’s last one.”

“I know.”

“You can do it for our family, right?”

“I can’t refuse you anything, dearie.”

 

Rose gave him her tongue-poking smile, the smile he loved so much on her, and he made an effort to pick the most beautiful tree for their Christmas. They brought it back to the small flat and placed the tinsels and balls on it to decorate it the best way for that Christmas to be unforgettable. And for once, the Doctor showed the best side of him, stopped being grumpy, and enjoyed the evening…


	19. Day 19: Holiday baking (9, 10, 11, 12, 13/Rose)

The Doctor wasn’t doing domestics. He had been very clear on that rule since day one. He had asked her to come on board, but on his conditions. However, all Rose Tyler that she was, when she was deciding something, no one could stop her, and the Doctor, all alien with a superior biology that he was, was no different from the humans she had rubbed shoulders with through all her life. He was at her feet, and was satisfying all her desires, whether it was for domestics or else. So, when she had talked about holiday baking because she loved shortbread biscuits and gingerbread houses, he had had no other choice but to give in and test the domestic activity that was baking. She still remembered his every reaction. They had been different according to the face and personality he had.

The first Doctor she had met, the Northern one in leather, automatically refused the activity. She couldn’t even go to the end of her sentence that he was already saying no, as if he could read her mind. She wasn’t hiding her envy either. He was seeing her coming from far, and the _‘no Rose’_ he was always giving her with that gruff Northern accent made her pout at him. He was hard to work on, and she sometimes was forced to abandon the idea and go to her room for a few hours only to find out that the kitchen was full of everything she needed to bake when she was coming out. She was happily jumping all around the kitchen as she was baking her favourite Christmas biscuits, and he was just observing her with a smile on his lips. Once she was done, he was cleaning the kitchen and washing the dishes, and he was allowed to eat a shortbread biscuit as a reward.

The second Doctor, the skinny one with really great hair, was less refractory to the activity. He was more joyful, keener to play the Christmas game. He was still refusing to bake at first, wasn’t even buying the food but she knew he would come and steal the biscuits when they would be out of the oven. So she was filling the cupboards with the ingredients, and baking all day. He was always coming around to bother her and try to steal some biscuits when she wasn’t looking, and she was hitting his hand with the spoon she had in hers. The next year, he started baking with her – tried at least – but he was adding ingredients he wasn’t supposed to – like bananas – to add more taste. It usually ended with an argument that was worsening into a food fight and hours of cleaning the mess.

The third one, all in bow ties and fezzes, was the one who loved Christmas spirit the most she thought. He was even worse than her in a way. As soon as the first of December hit, he was turning the whole TARDIS into a gigantic Christmas house with decorations, Christmas trees and things she had never heard of before. Of course, he knew all about her Christmas traditions now and he was all bouncy and overexcited as they were in the mall to buy everything they needed for the baking. He didn’t stay in the corner, nor start food fights. He wanted to do things well, but the truth was, he was a real disaster in a kitchen. He was so full of energy and jumping everywhere that he was spilling stuff and slipping on it, obviously. The worst certainly was when he blew up the kitchen, and almost caused his own death.

So, when he regenerated into his twelfth self, she hadn’t known what to expect from him. He was still attached to her, still deeply in love with her, but she could feel that things were different. The first days had been awkward between them and when Christmas time had rolled around, she had been disappointed to see they were back to square one. Scottish grumpy Doctor, clearly not into Christmas stuff. Since it was her tradition, she hadn’t changed her habits, but she was sad, so sad, not to see him do any of the things his predecessors did. Once, he had come upon her crying while she was building her gingerbread house. He had caught her wrinkled hands and kissed them before wrapping her into his embrace. They had finished the sweet house together. After that, he had always come to help her.

The twelfth incarnation handed over to the thirteenth, and Rose was now too old to bake anymore. It was a nice and surprising thing to see the Doctor as a woman. Her hands were sometimes clumsy when she was taking care of her, as if she was afraid of breaking her. Centuries of being male had never prepared her to be female suddenly, and it amused Rose. The parts were reversed now. Rose was too tired, and didn’t want to do anything, but the Doctor sat her up in her wheelchair and pushed her to the kitchen, now designed for her new vehicle. Everything was on the table, and the old woman’s moves were all led by the Doctor. Together, they carried on their traditions, no matter the time it took. What mattered the most was that they were doing it together, and they would do it until the end of times…


	20. Day 20: Rosy cheeks (Eleven/Rose)

The Doctor wanted to keep that image in memory forever. He hadn’t expected something so good to happen to him. He was the optimist, the hoper of flung hopes, the dreamer of impossible dreams, but that was something he had never dared dreaming of because it simply couldn’t happen to him. Not with his past, not with his actions. He couldn’t be forgiven, or loved. Not in his opinion. Rose had decided otherwise of course. Stubborn that she was! She had loved him since day one, and she had made him love her with her adorableness, her gentleness, and that smile. He was giving everything up just to see that smile. It was driving him mad when he saw the tip of her tongue but couldn’t kiss her, couldn’t feel it on his lips. That woman got him going crazy in every possible way.

Today was no different. Well, it was in a way. It was a special day for the both of them. Before he was forced to regenerate into his eleventh incarnation he had knelt down and asked for her in marriage. The ring was in his pocket but he hadn’t needed to show it to her. She had accepted it right away. As soon as the after effects of the regeneration – as weird as ever: he lost his sense of time and they disappeared for twelve years (!) which made Jackie absolutely furious – they had decided not to wait anymore and to get married in no time. They didn’t have any time to waste, not when Rose’s life was limited. They did it the Gallifreyan way with the minds’ bond and their name tattooed over their hearts in his native language so they always felt each other’s presence wherever they were.

However, Jackie had insisted for them to have what she called a real marriage. That meant she wanted them to get married the human way, in front of the mayor and God itself. The Doctor didn’t believe in any of those things, but he couldn’t prevent Rose from fulfilling a dream she probably had when she was a little girl. His previous selves would have laughed in Jackie’s face, but not him. He had accepted, and was yielding to Jackie’s every fantasy. She had accepted him to wear a bow tie instead of a tie. It just had to be black. He could perfectly do that. Easy-peasy. It wouldn’t have been that easy to convince his ninth self to wear a suit, but it would have been funny to see Jackie try. He wouldn’t even have let her organise the whole ceremony. But now? He was watching his stepmother and wife planning everything with a smile on his face.

He had never been a very patient guy. Time following its flux in the right order was boring, and he was counting the days until the wedding. The more they were getting close, the more he was being excited and impossible to calm down. Jackie was sending him away, inventing little errands just to get rid of him and Rose was always laughing. It amused her to see the two of them getting along pretty well for once. She went with him sometimes, and with winter coming, they were playing outside like kids and they came back before Rose could get cold. But he could never forget a laughing Rose with her rosy cheeks as she looked at him in the middle of a Christmas market they had wandered into. He loved the colour on her skin, and he made everything to see it again on her face. It was easier with the cold weather and it was keeping him busy until the wedding.

And he was standing there, in front of the altar of a church, fully dressed for once – he doubted that humans would appreciate his nudity – watching his Rose walking all the way up to him in her white dress. She was holding her mother’s arm, and her smile was brightening her face and his hearts beat out a samba. As she was coming closer, he noticed that her cheeks were rosy, coloured with that happiness filling them both on that special day. Through the whole ceremony, he felt his own cheeks getting that colour he loved so much on hers. He couldn’t stop smiling. Neither did he. Not even when they promised forever in front of everyone, and kissed to seal that wedding they had never expected to happen before…


	21. Day 21: Holiday music (Ten/Rose)

The Doctor loved music. He had never hidden this passion. He had even composed his own musical score once. ‘Music of the sphere’. He had offered it to the greatest composers, but no one had wanted to play it, or buy it. It hadn’t stopped him though. Rose had found lots of musical scores with scribbling and stains all over them. She never saw him write those things – he most likely did it when she was sleeping – and she wondered if he even knew what he was doing. When it came to music at least, because for the rest, he had absolutely no idea of what he was doing. It was causing them to always get in troubles and to run for their lives. That was what made the adventures funnier, but sometimes, it was difficult for her to follow. He tended to forget that she was human and needed to rest from time to time.

Anyway, to come back to the music part, the Doctor loved singing a song whenever the chance come to him. He also did it when it didn’t come to him. How many times had she caught him singing? In the shower, in the kitchen making tea, in the console room fixing something. He thought that she couldn’t hear him, but she did. She was listening, often. He had a beautiful voice. She wouldn’t be surprised if he told her that he had been on Broadway or something. The Doctor had seen and done it all, and he obviously had the talent to be in some musical spectacles. She loved singing too, humming some songs she heard on the radio or on the telly. But he never caught her, not that she knew. And as much as he loved scrawling on music sheets, she had never seen him compose for real, nor play any kind of instrument.

Today, he was humming a Christmas song. Something alien they had heard on some planet they just visited. She came upon him, and surprised him actually, as he was happily whistling the rest of the song. Christmas time was coming and he loved it. He was in the mood of singing. Holiday music. Classical. Efficient. Perfect for a joyful mood.

 

“I didn’t know you knew so many Christmas carols.’

“I’ve been traveling for quite a while.”

 

Rose wrapped her arms around his waist and leant her head against his back. He smiled and put a hand on hers. If he had known that singing would make her melt, he would have shown her his talents sooner.

 

“Sing for me, Doctor.”

“Why would I do that for?”

“Because I love your voice.”

“Never wonder why I’m speaking so much?”

“If you loved me, you would sing for me.”

“I will do better than that for you.”

 

He led her to a room she hadn’t seen before. A room full music instruments. They sat down on the piano seat. He pulled out a few papers and put them on the music stand. She blushed when she read the title and lyrics. He had written and composed a Christmas song about them. And now, she was blushing more because he was playing it and singing it for her. No one had done it before. She murmured an _‘I love you’_ in his ear. He made a mistake in the notes, but smiled at her. Holiday music was their favourite music from now on…


	22. Day 22: Shiver (Thirteen/Rose, Tentoo/Rose)

A shiver ran down her spine when she felt her hot breath on the bare skin of her shoulder. The blonde smiled as the cold lips of her wife brushed over the sensitive skin of her neck. She sucked on her pulse point, and she moaned in pleasure. She closed her eyes and leant her head back. Her lover murmured some sweet words into her ear and nibbled her lobe. Rose let out a groan and decided to reverse the parts. Her lips found the Doctor’s. She slowly lay down her girlfriend, and lay on top of her. Her lips followed an invisible trail all along her chin, neck and collarbone. Hands were stroking her body. They were soft, gentle. It was a nice change. The Doctors she had known before were all male, and despite the love and softness they were showing and giving her, there was always some hardness and masculinity the new Doctor didn’t have anymore. And she loved it.

Rose didn’t move for a while. She just observed the Doctor. Her blonde hair was spreading on the pillow. It was a ring around her head, and yet the Doctor was far from being an angel. The smirk on the corner of her lips was a proof of it. She could be evil at times, but never with her. Never to her. Rose gently tangled her fingers in a strand of short blonde hair and tucked it behind her pierced ear. That was something new too. The Doctor with piercings. A rebel Time Lord. Her fingers stroked her temple, her cheek, her lips, and the Doctor wasn’t moving. She was enjoying her touch, as soft as the stroke of a feather, and she deliciously shivered. That relationship was new to them. They had never considered the fact the Doctor could be a woman, even if Time Lords were gender fluid. A brand new adventure. One they would love sharing together.

 

“You are enjoying that, aren’t you?”

 

The Northern accent reminded her of their first days. Lots of planets had a North indeed, and there were different Northern accents. It didn’t matter. She had loved every single one of their accents. Especially when it was pronouncing her name. Especially when they were murmuring loving words in her ear. She could never get tired of it. The Doctor raised a hand and cupped her cheek. Rose leant into her touch and smiled. She couldn’t speak. Words didn’t come to her mind, but she didn’t care. No word was needed. Not right now. Their lips met again for a tender kiss.

 

“Rose?”

 

She swallowed the word, tasted its sweet sound on her tongue. Hands were stroking her face, and they were different. They felt different, but familiar all at once. The lips were now warm, and she could feel just one heart under her hand. One human heart. Was it just a dream? Or was it just the strength of her desire? A human Doctor for their forever together? She just had to open her eyes. But did she want to break the illusion?

 

“Rose? Do you hear me?”

 

A man’s voice. An Eastern accent. Her second Doctor, but not exactly. He had something more, or something less. Her eyes fluttered open. She was in bed, all tucked in, a wet cloth on her forehead. She felt cold, and yet, her body was burning. Laying by her side, there was her human Doctor. He was stroking her face, and looking worried.

 

“Hey,” he murmured.

“Hey,” she replied.

 

Her voice was raspy, and her throat hurt. The Doctor gave her some water to drink. She was suffering from a bad flu, and she had had a high fever, which caused her to hallucinate. Hallucination or not, she would rather believe that, for a moment, she had had a connection with the Time Lord. Well, Time Lady now…


	23. Day 23: Feast (Tentoo/Rose)

They swallowed when they saw all the food laying on the long table of the living-room. They had been tired of the boring ceremonies given by the Tyler every year at Christmas. The Doctor had always complained about them because there was no fun, and because he had to wear a black suit and a tie when he now preferred wearing a simple T-shirt with cartoons characters and jeans. It was more comfortable. Later, Rose had told him that she was finding those parties as annoying as him. In that universe, she was the Vittex heiress, the daughter of the boss in Torchwood, and everyone was very respectful of her and too polite, too hung-up. However, deep down, Rose still was a girl of the Estates, a girl who had to fight to be respected, to fit in. So, all of that was kind of frustrating for her. Things were too easy. And she was suffering from homesickness very often.

That’s was he was doing everything in his power to make her feel at home in the new universe they were stuck in. Their home was just the way she wanted it. Cosy and warm, full of family pictures. Everything that didn’t exist in this world, and that she missed, he was creating it, building it, cooking it. It sure was easier thanks to the sonic screwdriver his Time Lord double had given him before the breach was closed. He was keeping it hidden. He didn’t want anyone to know about it. They would steal it from him to try and replicate it. That was something unique. A single piece. Just like him, Rose and Jackie were unique pieces with unique habits. If Jackie had adopted the traditions of this world, Rose couldn’t get her head around it. She missed her values. Everything she had been told, everything she had learnt was nothing here, and it made her feel bad.

The one she missed the most was Christmas. The family reunion, the dinner, the crackers, the honest laughs, the good memories. Here, it was just formality, seriousness, perfection. They had to be present, and talk politely to everyone. Not for them. So, they had started their new old traditions. Once they had seen and talked with everyone, they sneaked away and went to their home. There, they shared a Christmas like she always had. Surprisingly, the Doctor was a good cook and could prepare a feast in no time. They were sharing it, enjoying it to the maximum and coming back to the Tyler’s mansion before the end of the ‘party’. Usually, no one would notice that they had been gone. They were too busy talking about new projects and investments. Really boring. It was making the Doctor sleepy. All he was dreaming of was going to bed with his wife and sleep until they got to open their presents.

That year though, everything was different. Rose was pregnant with their first child and only her and the Doctor knew about it. She was four months in, and was hiding it the best she could. She was often really sick and had to refuse missions on the field. She wanted it to be a surprise for her parents. A Christmas gift. They had come to the party, sneaked away for their tradition and come back to the Tyler’s mansion to find out everyone was gone. Pete, Jackie and Tony were the only ones left, and they were sat around the table covered with a real feast. Full as they were, they couldn’t eat anything more.

 

“Ah! There you are!” Jackie got up and walked up to them. She wrapped her arms around their shoulders and smiled wildly at them. “Rose told me how much you both were missing our Christmas traditions. So we decided to celebrate it this year.”

 

Jackie knew that her daughter was suffering from homesickness, but she hadn’t known how badly it was until the Doctor talked to her about it. She just didn’t know about their secret traditions, about the feast – less impressive than the one currently on the table. Their stomachs were full, and they would be unable to eat anything else. Rose went very pale and suddenly ran away from the room, surprising everyone but the Doctor.

 

“Rose has felt quite sick lately. I don’t think she’s gonna eat anything.”

“Sick?” Jackie frowned. “Has she seen a doctor?”

“Yep. It’s nothing serious.”

“What is it?”

“Well…” The Doctor ruffled his hair, embarrassed. “We wanted it to be a surprise.”

“No?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, my God! Doctor, that’s amazing!”

 

Jackie hugged the Doctor tight, happy to be a future grandmother. Peter came to congratulate him, just when Rose was back. She lightly slapped the back of the Doctor’s head to punish him for not being able to keep a secret, and confirmed that she was pregnant, and that she definitely wanted to be a part of that huge feast they had gotten prepared for her…


	24. Day 24: Love (Ten/Rose)

James Noble was desperately in love with Rose Tyler. It had been that way for years. Since kindergarten actually. He had seen her and her blonde hair walking in the playground, and he had found her beautiful. In class, she was sitting in front of him and he was often daydreaming about them together, causing him to never listen to the teacher and always end up in the corner with a dunce’s hat on his head. Everyone was mocking him, calling him a dunce when he was cleverer than them. He was just too focused on the girl of his dreams, and she was always ignoring him. She probably thought he was a weirdo and was mocking him with her friends. He only had one friend. Jack Harkness, a noisy boy who loved boasting around and flirting with everyone. He wasn’t exactly his friend. Just someone that was always beside him and dragging him into troubles.

As the years passed by, Rose and James became the perfect _cliché_ of the movies. Not that he was watching them. He preferred intellectual stuff to be honest. Anyway, he became that _cliché_ of the geek, super intelligent, and unpopular. He was rather handsome for a loser though, but that didn’t change much. Rose became a pretty and popular girl with lots of friends. She was the best in gymnastics and boys were queuing up to date her. It was making him jealous. Green with envy. However, she never looked at him, never even noticed him while they were living in the same district, while they had been in the same classes since forever. He was living in the shadows, keeping silent about his feelings that were destroying him inside down. He never showed it to anyone, never talked about it. He was focusing on his studies, succeeding in all the tests and having no social life. Until year eleven.

He had been told that high school was easier, that he would be more in peace. Had those people even gone there for once in their life? It was hell. As soon as the first week started, he had already become the punch bag of the football team who kept mocking him and bullying him. The worse in that story was that Jack was their leader. Good old Jack had become that sports guy pretending to be an idiot and messing with everyone. He had had a thing with Rose once but it hadn’t lasted long. Now, she was dating some other guy older than her. Some rock star who had given up on his studies, and made her fall into a vicious circle of drugs, violence and failures. She was unhappy, on the edge of abandoning and no one saw it. They all believed her fake smile, her lies. Except him. But how could he come up to her and tell her that he knew what she felt, and that he was there for her when she had no idea of who he was?

Everything changed by a cold December night. He got into an argument with his mother and sister. They both had quite a character and had always something to say about the way he was living his life and now his love for Rose Tyler, ‘the worst bitch this Earth ever carried’ to quote his mother, was ruining him. Donna was more understanding. She knew what he was going through every day with Jack and his stupid gang. She was trying to help when their mother was only making it worse. Thankfully, he could talk to his granddad. But tonight, Wilf wasn’t there, so James had pulled on his shoes and coat and had run away in the night. Now, he was walking, ignoring his vibrating phone. He had nowhere to go, no friend to go to. He was left alone, and didn’t want to go back home. Not yet. He needed more time. And time was what someone else needed at the moment.

He heard a bloodcurdling scream not far from where he was. Panic overwhelmed him of course. He hadn’t realised he was in a very insecure district. He needed to run away from here. He did a U-turn and stopped in his tracks. That voice begging someone to stop… He knew it. He would recognise it anywhere. He couldn’t go back now. He silently and quickly walked towards the crime scene and froze when he saw what was happening. Rose, his Rose, his beautiful Rose, was being yelled at, and beaten, and insulted by some waste. Rage overwhelmed him, and he lost his control. He ran on the guy and pushed him away. He could have called the police but he wasn’t sure Rose would have held on for much longer. The guy was strong and James stood no chance against him, but as long as he wasn’t beating Rose anymore…

How had he made it, he didn’t know. He just woke up in a hospital room. His sister was by his side. His grandad was sat in the chair behind her. His mother was gone to get some coffee. They were relieved to see him awake and well, and his mother couldn’t help but yell at him for being a reckless idiot, but Wilf stopped her. An idiot maybe, but he saved a life that night. He had chosen to sacrifice himself to save someone. Not anyone would have done so. Later, he got a visit from Rose. She had insisting on coming to thank him. He was her hero now, and she wanted to be friend with him. She owed him one after all. Nothing could make him happier than the reward she had just given him…


	25. Day 25: Presents (Twelve/Rose)

The Doctor wasn’t feeling very well today. It wasn’t physical. It wasn’t any kind of disease. Time Lords were immune to most of the virus that were wandering around the universe. His problem was simply mental. Not the type of mental problems he usually had. He had been called crazy, idiot, violent, impetuous, had been told that he was making non-sense, and his only answer to that had been laughing in people’s face. He was a genius from space, but he could sometimes be an idiot. Right now, he was an idiot. An idiot who was feeling really bad. In his defence, he was a time traveller. He was always jumping from one era to another and it made him lose his sight of the real time it was. He had forgotten that Christmas time was coming, that it was already there, and that he had promised Rose they would share presents that year like they had done with his previous selves.

However, he wasn’t like his other selves. He was worse than any of them. He wasn’t as protective as his ninth self, as empathic as his tenth self, as joyful as his eleventh self. He was just a grumpy old grandpa who couldn’t do anything right when it came to his feelings for Rose. Emotions, feelings… All that stuff wasn’t for him. He had promised himself to make an effort, and he had ruined everything once again, because he had bought no present for his wife when she surely had a whole mountain of them for him. How lame was he as a boyfriend! She never seemed to give any importance to it, but he knew that she missed it in him. He was ruining their small little Christmas because he had been too busy saving the universe to think about the only thing that really mattered to him.

He glanced at the time the scanner screen was displaying. It was too late to run somewhere and get something for her. Not that he couldn’t come back right at the moment he had left, but because Rose would notice it. The Bad Wolf had gifted her with the sense of time and immortality for saving the Doctor’s life so she could stay with him until the end of times. Of course, it wasn’t easy to deal with. She still had the body and brain of a human. She wasn’t ageing physically, but her memory was limited, and he had taken that habit of writing their most beautiful moments together in a diary. He was keeping them in a locked drawer in his office. She didn’t know he was doing that, and he should really tell her. He hadn’t, because he thought she would probably tell him that it was making her sad to have forgotten all of that. And he truly didn’t want her to be sad.

 

“Doctor?”

 

He pushed the thoughts away when he heard her voice coming from behind him. He turned around to face her. She was coming out of the library where she had settled everything for their little evening together. He was astonished by how beautiful she still looked for him. What had he done to deserve a woman like her?

 

“You’re done preparing everything?”

“Yep. Even the gifts are under our small tree. But I haven’t seen yours. Where have you hidden them?”

 

He didn’t know what to answer to that. It was a tough situation. If he admitted that he hadn’t bought any gift to her, she would be sad and he didn’t want to break her heart. In the other hand, he didn’t see how he could do otherwise.

 

“You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?”

 

He was surprised that her voice wasn’t showing any sadness. She didn’t even seem surprised. She was sort of amused. Which wasn’t normal. Not for him. Was she mocking him?

 

“You’re not mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad?”

“Because I’m not good enough for you. Not like my other selves were.”

 

Rose walked to him and cupped his cheek. She kissed his lips softly. She knew he was gonna forget. That’s just how he was. That’s why she had bought her own gifts for him to offer her.

 

“I don’t mind you forgetting it. I knew you would.”

“You knew?”

“It doesn’t matter, Doctor. You are the only present I need.”

 

She smiled at him and grabbed his hand. They walked together to the library where they would spend the evening having a fun and relaxing moment. Rose showed her Doctor the gifts she had bought for herself in his name. It made him laugh. But her words were making him think, because of how right they were. She was the only present he needed. The other ones were only flourish. Only a way for their forever not to be too monotonous…


	26. Day 26: Fire (Eleven/Rose)

When she was looking at him, she was always thinking of how bright and dark he could be. Most of the time, she was comparing him to a fire. It was particularly true with his eleventh incarnation. The two previous one were embers and she had had to blow on them to see them burning for real. However, when her Doctor with great hair left to become the one he was now with his big chin and love for bow ties, she had seen immediately that things would be different. She didn’t have to blow on that one. He was already burning bright. He was as energetic and uncontrollable as a wild fire, and she liked it about him. He was different from the others, but so identical to them at the same time. She remembered that moment of bright joy he had had when everybody lived. He had been a real firework then. Probably the only time she saw him burn like this.

Moments of joy were more abundant after that. The next incarnation was burning low, and having more bursts of pure happiness. The embers were glowing. The fire was coming back to life after a while of being out because of an unexpected meeting with the coldness of war. The regrets were suffocating it and keeping it as low as possible. Then came the new new Doctor. The Doctor who forgot. He was pushing the regrets and guilt and pain away to live again, to enjoy life at its best. Nothing was containing him anymore, and he could burn freely. It had no restraints anymore, and it was scary at times. No one and nothing could stop him. He would burn everything and everyone on his way. Was it a good or a bad thing? She couldn’t tell. She just loved that burst of energy he had. Even if it was hard to follow sometimes.

And then, he had those moments when the fire was close to an end, when he was tired of losing his battles, of losing his friends – losing Amy and Rory had been really hard for him – and he was back to the embers condition. She hated seeing him that way when she had seen him so bright before. He was more dangerous when his fire was almost out, she thought. If he didn’t have her to light the fire again, what would he do? Would he just let it extinguish itself? Would he let the Doctor die? When she had first met him, he was on that edge already, and she never wanted to see him like that again. The fire that burnt in her chest when he was down wasn’t one she liked. It was a fire of powerlessness and frustration. A fire that hurt. And she was blowing on his embers to get his good fire going again.

There was another reason why she was comparing him to a fire. A more intimate reason. Something only her and the persons who had had the privilege of being as close to him before – which made her pretty jealous to think about – could know: the Doctor was burning with passion and love for the companions he loved more than simple friends. When he was making love to her, she could feel it burning and it pleasurably hurt. He was reviving the small flame she had kept in herself all those years despite her disastrous experiences in love. He would never know how hard it had been for her to feel the flame of love again when they met, how hard it had been to accept it when he kissed her for the first time – the first time she could remember – and how hard it was to convince herself that she wouldn’t get burnt in the process.

The Doctor was burning bright with passion and through contact with him, she had learnt not to be so scared anymore by the fire livening people up. Everyone had a fire burning inside down, whether it was just embers waiting for someone to blow on them to get the fire going again, a shy flame or a wild blaze.

 

“What are you thinking of?”

“You’d be surprised.”

 

Rose turned her head and smiled at the Doctor. He was laying by her side, his body still gleaming with sweat after their love session, and he was tracing designs on her bare pale skin with his finger. The fire of love was burning low now, until they could do it again. And it would be another firework of passion for sure.


	27. Day 27: Ice (Thirteen/Rose)

The ice was shining as much as her eyes she thought as they were observing the ice sculpture they had found in the TARDIS’ cold room. They had been looking for something else, the product of an experience the Doctor had done a long time ago and that she wanted to show Rose, and had discovered the sculpture instead. The Doctor didn’t remember making that one in all honestly. She remembered taking sculpture lessons a long time ago during a trip in the Ancient Rome. She hadn’t had much of a choice back then. Rose had been changed into a statue, and she had had to improvise. Surprisingly, the statue had made it to nowadays and was now in a London museum. But that one? When had she done such a wonder? Why couldn’t she remember it? Her memory was still a mess since the regeneration, and it was pretty annoying at times.

The sculpture was beautiful, a perfect reproduction of the original young Rose Tyler in ice, and kept in the cold room for obvious reasons. The dim light was reflecting on the cold material, making it gleam, and Rose’s eyes were shining in admiration as her fingers brushed over her own features forever immortalised in the ice. None of them was able to say a word. The Doctor was embarrassed to have forgotten about it, embarrassed that Rose had found that. It was meant to stay hidden, maybe because it had been done when she was pushing back her feelings. Rose didn’t say a word because she was amazed by the work that had been done on that statue, by the realisation of the time the Doctor must have spent watching her to be so precise, how well her body had been sculpted in a material so ephemeral and so fragile.

When you were thinking about it, the ice was probably the material that was describing the best the way the Doctor was seeing her at first. A young woman that would wither with the time, a fresh flower that would fade, a fragile petal that could be broken into brutal hands. The Doctor had never spared her. She had shown her the wonders of the universe, but also its dark sides, sometimes in a very crude way. Nevertheless, she had always been protecting the fragile human she was from any kind of danger that could come their way. She still did it, but not as much as before, and Rose happened to regret it, that protector side of the Doctor. It had been a part of her male selves. A part of their oversized ego. That ego was still the same, but it was less evident since her regeneration as a woman.

Rose was impressed by the approach the Doctor had used to create this piece of art. She remembered the statue made of marble she had once done for her. The work on that one was just as fine, just as precise, as it had been then. Had it been done after that adventure that had almost cost them to stay statues forever? Or was it part of the training she had been taking? Whatever it was, the work had been considerable, and it had definitely been worth it.

 

“Why have you never shown me this?”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember when it has happened. Maybe was I afraid of what you would think of it.”

“I love this. It’s just… It’s wonderful, Doctor.”

“You like it?”

“How could you think that I wouldn’t?”

“I’m not that confident about myself inside down.”

 

Rose grabbed the Doctor’s hand in hers and lightly squeezed it to reassure her. It was something you were learning about her when you were getting to know her better. As confident as the Doctor might seem at first, it was just a false image of her. But for this masterpiece she had created, Rose promised her that there was no reason to feel uncertain. She absolutely loved it.


	28. Day 28: Sledging (Tentoo/Rose)

“Rose, wake up! It’s been snowing!”

 

That’s how her beloved Doctor woke her up that morning. The house was full of agitation and happiness and she could barely open her eyes. She was in the middle of a deep sleep cycle and being woken up so suddenly had surprised her. Her heart was beating fast. She sighed and closed her eyes again. Downstairs, the Doctor and their two children were up to something according to the quick steps she was hearing. Even their small puppy was being excited about the current situation.

 

“Mummy! Mummy, wake up!”

 

Rose started at the sudden voice so close to her. She opened her eyes again to find her daughter, Emily, on the bed with her. She was fully dressed with her coat, gloves and hat on. What did it mean? Where was she going?

 

“Whatcha doin’ here?” she mumbled sleepily.

“There’s snow everywhere, mummy!”

“And daddy is taking you out?”

“We’re going sledging!”

 

Her smile was wild. She was happy about her daddy’s decision. Rose sighed again. The Doctor was such a kid sometimes. She couldn’t trust him on that one. He would monopolise the sledge and the kids wouldn’t have any fun because they would try to get it back.

 

“I’m coming.”

 

She managed to drag herself out of bed, and quickly got ready. She went downstairs with her daughter. Like she had expected, the Doctor was already outside with their youngest child, Charlie, and their puppy, Newton, and he was on the sledge. He was having troubles fitting on it because it was too small, and, inevitably, rolled down in the thin layer of snow. It hadn’t snowed that much, and it probably would have disappeared in a few hours.

 

“Get off that sledge, Doctor. It’s not yours.”

“But Rose!” he complained.

“No complaints allowed. It’s for the kids.”

 

He tried to argue, but Rose refused to give in to his caprice and forced him to let go of the sledge so the kids could get on it. In the end, they all had fun. The kids were on the sledge and he was pulling it with a rope. Newton was following them and barking happily in response to their laughs of happiness.


	29. Day 29: Scarf (Eleven/Rose)

The Doctor was looking at Rose amused by the fact she was wrapping a scarf around his neck. She had insisting on him having it because of how cold the weather was lately. She didn’t want him to be cold, and he liked the fact that she was so attentive to him and trying to take care of him like he was taking care of her. It was amusing him because he didn’t need any scarf or coat. His superior biology was taking the variations of temperature in charge, and he didn’t have to worry about such unimportant things. Anyway, he didn’t mind Rose wrapping a scarf around his neck. He was doing the same for her. She was immune against the smallest viruses thanks to the dormant Bad Wolf in her mind, but it was an old habit for her to get ready to face the cold. A human habit she didn’t need anymore.

The scarf reminded him of one of his past selves. The fourth Doctor used to wear a very long and colourful scarf and that was why the situation was amusing him so much. He had gotten rid of the scarf in his fifth incarnation – to replace it with a branch of celery, that wasn’t much better – and he could have missed it at times. It was a nice memory to think about for once. He wished to have more nice memories like that. It was making him smile.

 

“You are thinking about something nice, Doctor.”

“How do you know?”

“You are smiling.”

“I am always smiling.”

“This you is indeed. What is making you smile that way?”

“The scarf reminds me of a past self.”

“You used to wear a scar?”

“My fourth self used to. A very long and colourful scarf. I had a hat too. And I was very tall.”

“I wish I could have seen that.”

“Wait for it.”

 

He grabbed the scanner screen and brought it back to them as the TARDIS was looking for a picture of him in his fourth incarnation. When it appeared on the screen, Rose curiously looked at the picture. She couldn’t help but giggle a bit at it.

 

“Oi!”

“Sorry. But you had a very peculiar style back then.”

“You should have seen my sixth self.”

 

Another picture appeared on the screen and Rose couldn’t hold back her laugh that time. The Doctor pouted at her mocking him but she nudged him gently. She loved spending those little moments with him, when he was sharing those moments of his past without being ashamed. She would just mock him a bit, but it was never mean. After that moment of laugh, she took his hand and led him outside to face their new adventure that was only waiting for them...


	30. Day 30: Cosy (Twelve/Rose)

He wanted her to forgive him for forgetting the presents on Christmas day. She had told him that she wasn’t mad at him, that she had known that he would forget because his current self wasn’t much into celebrations. Christmas was sorta new to him. His previous incarnation was the one who loved it the most. He couldn’t be as energetic or as enthusiast as he used to be. He was too old for this shit in his opinion, but Rose, as old as she was now – at least, in terms of age since the Bad Wolf was slowing her ageing down – still was a kid deep inside and loved her Christmas traditions and he had always tried to make sure they were respecting them so she was fully happy and didn’t regret her life on Earth much. They were almost never coming back there now. They had no reason to anymore since Jackie had passed away.

Anyway, to make himself forgiven for being an idiot unable to do even the smallest things to make his wife happy, he had wondered what he could possibly do for a change, and as he was web surfing, he had found an idea. Thankfully, she thought that his sonic glasses were ridiculous – but she still liked him wearing them: after all, he was a rock star – so she never used them and could never see his internet history, thankfully. So she couldn’t know what he had in mind. He had just told her to get ready for their next adventure, that it was gonna fantastic – he loved when he was making some references to the past selves she had known – and that she would love it. She had wanted to know what it was all about but he hadn’t told her anything about it. He wanted her to have the full surprise of it. And she did.

He had invented a whole treasure hunt for her. Just like kids liked them. It was full of enigmas she had to solve to find him. He had made it all for her but had to admit he had had fun too. The enigmas were perfect for her, all related to an adventure they had lived together in the past and it was giving her a clue for the next step until she finally reached the small cottage he was hiding in, waiting for her. It had been a bit long, not because the enigmas were hard – after all, his Rose was more than clever and those enigmas were a piece of cake for her – but because he had put too many of them on it. However, when she had come through the door triumphantly, his wait was rewarded. She was wearing the outfit he had asked her to wear. She had been obeying for once, but she was cold and wondered what it was all about.

 

“There you are! Been lookin’ for you for hours.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be so long, but it is on me.”

“What are we doing here?”

 

He tapped the huge ottoman he was slouched on – no way to be sat properly on this, but it was rather cosy – for her to come by his side. She raised an eyebrow but obeyed anyway. She closed the door, locked it and got rid of her coat before she let herself fall beside him. She had a moan of contentment because of how comfortable and warm it was after walking for hours, and when the Doctor wrapped his arms around her, she couldn’t help but snuggled up against him. She looked up at him and met his blue eyes, much greyer than the blue eyes of the Doctor she had first met but still that deep blue that was making her melt at the core and she was filled with a sudden and irrepressible longing for him.

 

“Not now, Rose Tyler,” he murmured in her ear with his Scottish accent.

 

It made her shiver. Every time the Doctor was pronouncing her name with that accent of his – they all had their accent and she had loved them all – she was falling in love with the way it sounded in his mouth. She particularly liked when he was saying her name in those moments of intimacy where he could barely speak and she was taking the word in her mouth with a kiss.

 

“So you made me walk all the way to here, in this warm and cosy cottage?”

“I did.”

“Is there a reason for this?”

“Oh, I needed to find a way to be forgiven for forgetting the gifts.”

“Doctor…”

“No, that was on me. So I wanted to do something to fix it. I thought that a whole week-end in this lovely cottage could be perfect.”

 

Rose grinned at him, and her tongue poking out betrayed his longing for her. He cupped her still cold cheek and leant towards her to place a soft kiss on her lips. They would have all the weekend to satisfy the desire that was burning in their hearts and body...


	31. Day 31: New beginnings (Twelve/Rose, Thirteen/Rose)

He had been holding back his regeneration for too long for fear of changing again, for fear of what he would look like. There was a time he wouldn’t have wanted to change for fear of the future, but his future was nice so far. He still had his lovely blonde by his side and she would forever be. Even if he became the worst jerk ever seen in the universe, she would make him change into a better man. She always had, and always would because she was the purest person he had ever met in all his lives. He was just tired of changing, tired of losing himself with every regeneration, tired of feeling like his final hour had come. But he had been holding it back for too long now. It was either changing or dying, and he couldn’t do that with the woman he loved looking at him with concern and unable to come closer to help as he stumbled and fell to his knees.

He managed to stand back up and pulled a lever down. The TARDIS made her wheezing sound that usually was so comforting to the couple, but couldn’t stifle their sadness at the moment. The Doctor pressed his fingers to his forehead. He was getting dizzy and his sight was being a blur. A representation of the universe was displayed on the screen and his goodbye words slowly came out of his mouth.

 

“Oh, there it is. Silly old universe. The more I save it, the more it needs saving. It’s a treadmill.” The TARDIS made sounds of protestation in response to his words, but Rose was still silent. “Yes. Yes, I know. They’ll get it all wrong without me.” The Time Rotor noisily went on and off. The machine was listening, and replying. “Well, I suppose, one more lifetime wouldn’t kill anyone.” Both the Doctor and Rose glanced at his hand that was glowing with the regeneration energy. The end was coming, and the TARDIS knew it. “You wait a moment, Doctor. Let’s get it right.”

 

He wasn’t done yet, he needed a little bit more time. A few more minutes with his TARDIS and wife. He climbed the stairs to the upper walkway, his hand on the handrail as he limped forward, still leaning on the handrail, to have a better sight of the console room before ruining everything.

 

“I’ve got a few things to say to you. Basic stuff first. Never be cruel, never be cowardly, and never, ever eat pears!” He pointed a finger at the Time Rotor before holding the handrail again. Rose couldn’t help the smile. The Doctor and pears, a long story. “Remember, hate is always foolish and love is always wise.” He went downstairs again and walked close to the console. He swallowed. It was getting harder to hold it back. “Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind. Oh, and you mustn’t tell anyone your name.” He was still walking around the console. Even in his last minutes of life, he couldn’t stay in one place. “No one would understand it anyway. Except…”

 

Except his wife. His Rose knew it, and she understood it. He knew she would never tell it to anyone. It was his secret, their secret, and they would keep it untold. There was only another small amount of people who could know and understand. A very particular sort of people.

It was too much. The pain, the energy burning, the new Doctor waiting. He was left breathless for a second and fell to his knees again. He pressed a hand on his side and put the other one on the ground to lean on it. Rose was watching him, unable to say a word. She wished she could do something for him, to help him with his pain.

 

“Except children. Children can hear it sometimes, if their hearts are in the right place, and the stars are too. Children can hear your name.” He grabbed the console and grunted in pain. Just a few more seconds. “But nobody else. Nobody else. Ever.” He pushed himself off the floor and pointed at the Time Rotor again, but he was talking both to Rose and to the next Doctor. “Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind. Doctor, I let you go.”

 

Rose closed her eyes and turned her head away as the regeneration streamed out of him causing some important damages to the TARDIS. When it was over, the Doctor stood still for a moment. His signet ring slipped from his finger and fell to the ground with a metallic noise. This body felt strange, different. A hand grabbed the screen of the scanner and a reflection appeared. He had become a woman. For the first time in numerous generations, he had become a woman. That was really exciting. She turned to face Rose who was looking at her new body, astounded by the sudden change.

 

“Rose Tyler!”

 

The accent had moved from a Scottish one, to a Northern England one. Back to the old days somehow. Rose didn’t say a thing as her new Doctor walked to her and pressed a soft kiss on her lips. Oh, it was a nice chance for sure, and she could get used to it really quickly.

 

“Hello,” softly murmured the new Doctor against her lips.

“Hello,” stammered Rose.

“You will always love me, right?”

“Forever, Doctor.”

 

The second kiss was just as soft and delicate as a petal, just like the momentarily warm hand stroking her face, just like the thin fingers tangling themselves in her blonde hair. It was definitely gonna be fantastic to live that brand new adventure together.

 

“Brilliant!”

 

The Doctor walked back to the console and pressed a button. There was an explosion and sparks flew from the machine. The scanners proclaimed a systems crisis with multiple operations failures – no freshly regenerated Doctor had been able to pilot the TARDIS properly, but she was the worst. The TARDIS snapped back into normal space, tilted drastically and kept going band. The Cloister Bell was still tolling. The Doctor tried to hang on to the console that Rose was already gripping but she was having troubles keeping a hold of it.

 

“Doctor!” screamed Rose.

 

The Doctor lost her grip, and Rose caught her hand just in time. Oh, it reminded her too much of the Canary Wharf battle when she had desperately held on the lever until the void closed. However, she couldn’t hold on that way for too long, and she couldn’t lose the Doctor. They had to stay together. So, she let go of the console and they both slid towards the open doors with papers flying out of the TARDIS. As they were falling in the nothingness of a foreign night sky, the Time Rotor exploded and the TARDIS disappeared. How they were gonna survive that, Rose didn’t know. It was another of their chaotic new beginning, but they were firmly holding each other’s hand. With a beginning like that, the rest was gonna be epic...


	32. BONUS: Bells (Fem!Ten/Rose)

Since he was a little girl, Jane Smith loved hearing the bells chime. She used to sit by the window and listen to them. She found them comforting. They were steady, unchanging, always ringing each hour passing by. They never failed, never were late. They had always been there to fill the hole digging her heart slowly as she was losing her family, as she was falling into a life of loneliness. Her life was rhythmed by the bells ringing. Weddings of friends, funerals of her family, time running its course. The music of life and death. And love.

She had met her by chance in the school they were both working in. She was the new art teacher, and midday was ringing. The students had run out of the room and she was gathering her stuff and cleaning the room. Jane was going to her own classroom when she caught sight of her. The sun was bathing her into a golden halo, and the woman’s heart was echoing the bells. She had lost her sense of time and reason as she observed the blonde. The latter had caught her eyes watching her and smiled shyly at her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Their first date happened in a coffee shop. Jane could remember the ringing of the small bell above the door every time someone was coming in. That ringing and the blonde’s laugh were the only thing she could remember from that day. It could have been a good or a bad day for her, she didn’t remember. Most likely a good one since Rose had wanted to see her again. Date after date, secret meetings in the school when no one was looking, they got to know each other. There were people suspecting something about them and rumours but the women were only playing with them.

Their first kiss happened during the Christmas night. They were walking under the snow right after dinner. Rose was overexcited and kept squealing at the Christmas lights and at the snow. It was amusing Jane actually. Rose had a child’s soul, and it was as refreshing as comforting. No one had made her feel so young, so happy and so safe since her mother. She hadn’t realised how much she had missed it until Rose came into her life. Perhaps she was the right person. Perhaps she would be the one showing her that there were things worth fighting for. And they kissed in front of a church and its midnight mass as midnight rang.

The future told her just that. Day after day, month after month, their relationship was improving and they were falling deeper in love with each other. They were sharing more and more things and soon enough, they moved in together in a small flat facing one of the churches of the town. Rose knew how much Jane loved the sound of the bells and she had insisted on them renting that one. And every night, they were sitting by the window with a cuppa and listening to the sound of bells chiming. That was during one of those nights that Rose asked for her hand in marriage and the last hit of eleven was still ringing in the air when Jane said yes.

And there they were, holding hands in the ceremony room of the city hall, facing the mayor and smiling. It was finally the day they were getting bounded to each other with a ring, the day their forever began. Their family and friends were all there to witness their union, to witness them saying yes to a forever they had thought impossible in the past. They walked through the doors to the sounds of people applauding and of the bells ringing the music of love Jane loved so much since forever…


End file.
